Katie, not Kate
by robbiepoo2341
Summary: Logan and Kate just wanted a vacation in Madripoor to kill some ninjas and shoot some things, but instead, the first night in town, Kate wakes up... distinctly not-Kate. She's four and a half, and somehow, Logan has found himself babysitting his best friend's tiny girlfriend. He's the best "guardbody" there is, but he'd much rather just have Kate back and not tiny and bossy.
1. Tiny, Purple, and Trouble

**Notes: It'shereit'shereit'shereit'shere *AHEM* Ok. So. First thing's first, this is Volume 4 of the 714 Universe that Canucklehead Cowgirl and I have been working on for a while now. Volume 2 (Dating an X-Man is Hazardous to Your Health) is on my stories, but Volumes 1 and 3 are on hers. We're switching off who uploads… and it's my turn now. Which is great. Because…. Y'all. This volume. THIS VOLUME.**

 **So if you haven't already, go ahead and catch up on what you've missed, and strap in because I promise you will DIE OF CUTE.**

 ***points at the story* Go. Read it. Squee.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: "Tiny, Purple, and Trouble"**

Kate and Logan had been in Madripoor for about a week now, because really, they needed a change of pace and a _vacation_ after the school year had ended and after the big push Kate had made with her company. It was time for a break — and that meant killing ninjas. Clearly.

They'd stopped somewhere for food after a particularly hard fight, and Kate was on the phone with Billy, who was checking in before he went off with the Avengers for some kind of space mission and lost service for a few days — which, for him, was world-ending, really.

"Seriously, Billy, this is the best way to spend a vacation," Kate said easily as she rested her feet on the empty chair that she and Logan weren't using at their table, holding up her phone so she could see the video feed of Billy. "Ninjas, good food — and Kurt's going to meet up with us later, and we'll head to Japan for _more_ fun." She was grinning ear to ear.

"I've told you that you have a warped sense of humor, right?" Billy laughed on the other end of the phone. "Getting attacked all the time is _not_ my idea of fun."

"Yeah, well, _your_ idea of fun is picking out _wedding colors_ ," she shot back with an easy smile. "Seriously, Billy. Set a date. It's never going to be just perfect. You're worse than Susan."

"Hey!" He laughed, and she could hear on the other end that Teddy was giggling, so he must have been in the room too.

"Hey, Teddy. Tell your fiance to get his butt in gear," Kate called out easily.

"Love you too, Kate," Teddy said between giggles as he finally poked his head in on the video.

Kate just grinned a bit wider and leaned back. "Of course you love me. I'm awesome," she teased.

"Uh-huh." Billy laughed a bit on the other end. "How's babysitting Wolverine? Isn't that what you called this little trip?"

"Well, he _always_ needs a babysitter," Kate teased Logan's way, sticking out her tongue and knowing her friend had tried to throw her under a bus — though she was perfectly fine owning up to her Wolverine-teasing.

"Hey now," Logan rumbled. "That phone is going to take a swim if you keep spreading lies."

"Billy, he's threatening me," Kate said in mock horror as she heard the boys on the other line cackling. "Should I use my babysitting powers to take away his dessert?"

"You just want an excuse to eat all the dessert yourself," Teddy accused her.

"Yes, yes I do," Kate agreed. She grinned Logan's way as he shook his head and took a deep drink, both of them still in high spirits after the ninja fight.

"You know I ordered it for you anyhow," Logan replied with a laugh. "Since you couldn't pick."

"Well, everything just sounded so _good_ ," Kate said with a pretended pout. "How could I possibly choose _one_?"

"Enjoy it while you can. I doubt this place'll be in business next time we come through," he told her.

"Have to seize the moment," Billy supplied over the phone, laughing harder. "While you're young."

"Oh, please. I'll be eating dessert for dinner until I'm ninety-seven," Kate laughed.

"That'll take forever, seeing as you're still four and a half," Logan rumbled out quietly.

Billy and Teddy burst out laughing on the other end of the phone as Kate gave Logan a look, before she heard a little beeping noise on the other end of the conversation. "Oh, we gotta go, Kate," Billy said. "Getting ready to take off. But we'll call you again when we get back."

"And send lots of pictures," she reminded them.

"As if you have to ask." Billy and Teddy both waved at her and then, with blown kisses, ended the call, and Kate pocketed her phone with a little grin.

"You're corrupting those kids," Logan accused her.

"Me?" Kate placed a hand over her heart innocently. "I'm a sweet, innocent, four-year-old kid, remember?"

"Tell it to someone who buys that line."

Kate just cackled at him and shook her head. "You're just jealous I'm doing the corrupting this time and not you," she teased.

"It's actually nice to sit back and let someone else handle that nonsense," he said with a smirk. "And I can't get blamed for it."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll find a way to blame you anyhow," she said with a twinkle in her eye as she dove into her dessert. "You're an easy target."

"For blame?" he asked as he refilled his coffee. "Oh yeah. Super easy."

She just grinned and leaned back, taking her bowl of mango sticky rice with her. "So, oh easy target of mine — what kind of trouble should we get into while we wait for Kurt?" she asked.

"Well, that's kinda up to you. Viper's outta town from what the local buzz says, so we can't tweak her. Tyger … is doing whatever Daken had told her to, and I don't really want to touch that mess just yet. Not until I know which side the boy's on now. So. More ninjas. Or we could just go gamble. I'm told there _are_ non-fighting options, too."

"I like ninjas," Kate said with a smirk. "I also like poker, but there's no Fury here to clean out."

"Ladies' choice," he offered.

"Ninjas then," she said with a decisive nod. "And then poker later. I'm sure we'll have the ninjas nice and taken care of with time to spare."

"Ninjas it is," he agreed with a nod. "Just as soon as you're done with your desserts."

She grinned at him over the bowl. "You spoil me rotten, you know that?" she teased.

"I can stop."

"Please never do that," she laughed as she finished up the ice cream in the middle of the bowl.

As the two of them walked out of the restaurant, Kate still on a bit of a sugar high and grinning broadly as they teased each other, they quickly discovered they didn't have long to wait for the ninjas Kate had asked for. The second they stepped outside, a small wave of them seeped out of the alleys, and the two of them grinned at each other.

"See? The universe wants me to have fun," Kate told him, laughing as she pulled out her bow.

"Can't disappoint the universe," he said with a nod before the two of them just dove into the assaulting line of black-clad ninja.

As was the rhythm they'd created, Logan pushed them far enough back for Kate to take a clear shot, and the two of them simply began to tear them to pieces — or skewer them as fast as Kate could shoot and Logan could slash.

They were working up a good back and forth when Kate was surprised by one of the ninjas who turned out of a blind alley that she simply wasn't able to see from her vantage point, no matter how good her eyesight was. He caught her off-guard enough that she had to all but stumble back to avoid getting a sword in the stomach, and it was enough of an opening that one of his buddies rushed in to hit her hard in the head with both of his short staves, sending her sprawling and unconscious in a second.

From the other side of the fight Logan called out for Kate when he noticed the distinct lack of laughter or teasing as he cut his way through the last of the ninjas nearest him, but when she didn't answer, he went barreling down her scent trail to look for her.

When he found her, the ninjas were trying to toss her over one of their shoulders, but he clearly couldn't let that happen, so he rushed in, cutting through them with his eyes locked on the one holding Kate. There were only a few there trying to abduct her, and the one holding her pulled out a knife as he made a move to stab her — when Logan removed his arm and grabbed the back of Kate's uniform to keep her from falling to the ground outright.

Once she was halfway clear of her abductor, Logan sent his claws through the guy's chest and set her down on the ground carefully to look for any other threats. When it was clear the streets were relatively empty, he tried to wake her up, but she had a fairly nasty bump on her head and simply wouldn't rouse.

With a sigh, he picked her up bridal style and headed off for their hotel, ignoring the looks and smiles they were getting on their way.

Finally, he got to the room, and he pulled her boots off and more or less tucked her in. "Babysitting _me_. Right," he told the unconscious Hawkeye, shaking his head a bit.

He locked the door, knowing that whenever Kurt got there he would just teleport his way in anyhow, and headed off to his own room on the other end of the suite to settle in and watch the local news until he could relax himself a bit.

Logan was well and truly relaxed after an hour or two, half drifting off himself, beer in hand, before he heard a sound that he simply wasn't expecting — a clearly terrified and screaming kid.

He got up so quickly, he simply abandoned his tipped over beer to rush into the adjoining room and into Kate's, where Kate simply seemed to have been replaced with a small, dark-haired child with wide eyes, who was still half screaming.

"How the hell—" he started to say before he stopped himself. This was beyond anything that the Hand had ever done before.

A hundred thoughts rushed through his head and had him fighting back a panic as he realized that she was in the same place, but she was ready to scream bloody murder at the strange, muscle-bound mutant standing in her door. He pushed his concerns aside and took a deep sniff as quietly and carefully as he could before he flat swore under his breath.

There were lots of ways to lie to him — but scent hadn't let him down yet, and by her scent? That _was_ Kate curled up in bed, terrified … and tiny.

He tried to force himself to look a bit less shocked as he put his hands out in front of him for an attempt at damage control.

"Hey, take it easy, kiddo," Logan said quietly. "Are you okay?"

The little girl's lower lip was still quivering as she pulled the covers up nearly to her eyes, all but hiding in the bed that was way too big for her. "Where's my dad?" she asked angrily, slightly muffled by the covers.

He froze for just an instant, totally unsure on how to answer that one, all things considered. The one thing he knew for damn sure was that he couldn't tell her the truth on that one. "He's not here, Katie."

Her big eyes welled up with tears, and she lowered the covers enough so that she was sure he could see her best angry expression. "I don't like this place. I want to go _home_."

"I'll get you home as soon as I can," Logan replied soothingly as he forced his shoulders to relax, putting actual effort into making sure his body language read that all was fine. "I promise."

She glared at him hard for a long time before she started to wipe her face. "I want to go home _now_ ," she demanded.

"I know," he said, slipping into the chair on the far end of the room to keep from freaking her out worse. "But we can't just yet, or I'd take you there in a heartbeat."

She just kept glaring at him for a long time before she stuck her tongue out at him and ducked under the covers. "I don't _want_ a nanny. I want to go home."

"I'm not a nanny," he replied dryly, completely unamused with her estimation of his duties.

She peeked out of the blankets again. "Oh," she said very thoughtfully, little face scrunched up in thought before she nodded. "Okay. You must be a guardbody."

He tipped his head slightly as he worked out what she meant. "Yeah," he replied slowly. "That's it exactly."

Now that she had a name for what he was, she seemed a little less angry. "Okay," she said, lowering the covers a bit more so he could see her entire face. "I've never seen you before."

"That's because I'm the best," he replied with a smirk.

She grinned at that and nodded sagely. "That makes sense," she told him seriously. "My dad only gets the best for me. He said so."

"Well this time he's right," Logan replied with the smirk stretching closer to a crooked smile. "How old are you, darlin'?"

Katie pulled out her hands so he could see her hold up four stubby fingers with a proud smile. "Four and a half," she said matter-of-factly.

"You gotta be kidding me," he muttered under his breath as he scrubbed his hand over his face, now half-convinced the universe was just screwing with him if it was going to take his teasing that seriously. "Why don't you try to settle down and get some rest?" he asked Katie gently.

She scrunched up her face at him. "I'm not tired," she said, jutting out her chin.

He gave her a dry look and gestured to the dark windows. "Well, what the hell else is there to do?"

She thought about it for a second and then grinned. "Ice cream," she said decisively. "We can have ice cream. I can scoop it by myself."

"You already had ice cream earlier," he told her.

She folded her arms over her chest. "Nu-uh," she said, shaking her head at him stubbornly.

He let out a sigh. "Are you gonna be a pain about this?"

"There's no pain in ice cream," she told him seriously. "Only happiness."

"Tell you what, we'll order some up, but if you start bouncing off the walls, I'm gonna tie you up."

She stuck her tongue out at him but nodded. "I'll be good. I know how to be quiet," she promised him earnestly, now starting to settle into a real grin.

At that, he stepped into the other room to grab the room service menu and bring it back to her. "Do you know how to read, or do you want me to tell you what it says?"

"I know my letters," Katie said with a look of determination.

He nodded and gave her a look to see if she'd have a fit when he sat down next to her, and when she didn't, he just started down the list, letting her pick out only two things, though that was a bit of a sticking point, as she wanted to try all of them.

"Are you going to eat anything?" she asked curiously once she'd made her decision. "I can share. I know how to share."

"I don't like sweets," he told her.

She scrunched up her face at him. "That's silly," she told him. "Everybody likes dessert."

"Not me," he replied. "But as long as I'm helping you, if you're good — you can order for me and keep it for yourself. Deal?"

Katie giggled delightedly and nodded. "Yes, please! I'll be really good. I'll be really quiet. You won't even know I'm here!" she promised.

A short while later, the order arrived, and Logan frowned as she bounced over the bed and to the living room area of the suite. As she did, he realized that her uniform had shrunk with her — though he supposed that was better than dealing with a tiny Katie with no clothes to wear.

Once Logan set down the ice cream order in the kitchen, she scrambled up to sit at the table and simply dove into her ice cream with a grin, happily swinging her feet underneath her chair.

"I'm gonna make a phone call now," he told her. "You alright for a few minutes?"

"I'm a big girl," Katie told him seriously. "I know how to do things." She waved a sticky hand at him. "You go talk on the phone. Tell Daddy hi for me."

He watched her for just a moment longer before he took a few steps back and started scrolling through his contacts, looking for someone that might be in town — or at least someone who might know what was going on — before he settled on Jessica Drew. Just before he made the call, he snapped a picture. He let it ring until it went to voicemail, then simply hung up and sent the photo with a text that read, _Got a little purple problem. Hand?_

With that out of the way, he headed back toward Katie, who was humming to herself as she half danced in her seat and seemed to be attempting to wear half of her dessert.

"That wasn't a very long phone call," she said brightly.

"Didn't pick up," he explained with a shrug before he took a seat out of the splatter zone.

She frowned the slightest bit before she went right back to humming. "That's okay. Maybe he'll come get me tomorrow," she said with a smile.

"I wouldn't bet on that, kiddo," he said quietly, mostly to himself.

"Are you sure you don't want ice cream?" she asked, offering him the mush in her bowl as she seemed to have mixed the ice cream and chocolate icing into a sort of goop.

"No, I'm fine, thanks," he replied with a little smirk. "You … enjoy."

"I will!" She kicked her feet happily and just kept stirring up the chocolatey goop between bites.

When she was done, she was properly coated, and Logan was simply staring at her in disbelief. "You need a bath," he told her with his eyebrow raised.

"Mmhmm," she agreed happily. "Ice cream is sticky."

He pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to keep his irritation down, reminding himself that she was just a little kid, and none of this was her fault. "Come on then," he said.

She just hopped down and happily followed him, skipping every other step as she started to sing a few rhymes under her breath to skip along to. She looked out over the bathroom and let out a little sigh when she saw the state of it. "No toys?" she asked, disappointedly.

"No," he replied as he started up the water for her. "Didn't realize I was guard-body'in a little girl."

"I'm not so little. I'm _four_ ," she told him seriously. "I know my letters and numbers and everything."

"Then I guess a big girl like you doesn't need toys in the tub anyhow," he agreed distractedly, wondering what the hell he was going to give her to wear when she came out clean.

"I guess…" She regarded the tub warily before she brightened up. "I can be a big girl! It's not so hard — I read all the ice cream flavors, and you only had to help me three times," she reminded him.

"You did great," he said with a nod before he turned her way. "Can you do this part alone too?"

She put her hands on her hips. "Of course I can. I'm not _three_ anymore."

He smiled at that and nodded his head. "Okay. I'll be right out there. Someone friendly might be coming by in a little bit. Just call for me if you need something, got it?"

"Okay." She nodded at him happily. "Do you got a name, Mr. Guardbody?"

"You can call me Logan," he told her.

"Okay." She waved at him with a serious expression. "You have to go away now so I can take a bath, because you're a _boy_."

Before he left, he put a big towel on the sink for her. "Take your time, kid."

He stepped out of the bathroom as Katie was already singing to herself in her tiny, high pitched little voice. When he heard the splashing start, he went to running through his contacts again but couldn't get in touch with anyone that was worth a damn. As he was pacing and Katie's giggling reached near squeals, the comforting sound of Kurt's arrival echoed in the room.

"It's about damn time you got here," Logan half hissed his way in lieu of a greeting.

"I wasn't aware there was a rush," Kurt said with a little frown as he took a step back from his friend. "Is something wrong?"

At about the same time, a little voice called out from the bathroom, "What was that? What are you doing, Mr. Logan?"

"Don't worry about it, Katie," he called back, giving Kurt a significant look. "Everything's fine."

"Katie?" Kurt repeated, turning his full attention to Logan with an expression somewhere between concern and simple shock.

"Yeah," Logan said with a little growl. "Katie. Not Kate — but still. Go. She needs clothes. She's about yea high."

Kurt had to take a moment to just ... stare at Logan and at the hand he was holding to just about hip height to indicate Katie's size. It was clear he didn't quite believe what was happening, but finally, he just shook his head hard. "Right," he said before he simply teleported away - concentrated on the one thing he could do about the situation, which was find clothes.

Most of the bamfs went with Kurt, though a couple stayed behind, investigating the sticky mess in the kitchen with interested expressions.

"You guys keep outta sight," Logan warned them. "You scare her and I'm taking it out on you."

The bamfs glanced at each other and then Logan before they, too, teleported out of sight — probably to avoid being turned into boots.

While Kurt was gone, Katie reemerged from the bathroom at last, wrapped completely in the towel that was far too big for her and trying very hard to get around without falling over.

"Mr. Logan, you forgot to lay out my jammies," she told him severely.

"Sorry, punkin'," he replied. "You like purple, right?" he asked as he headed over to her suitcase to try to find as small of a shirt as possible — and coming up with something that he was sure she'd take offense to, what with the Avengers logo across it and it lacking any hint of purple. "This is all I have right now, but I've got someone bringing you some fresh clothes."

She looked at the shirt with a little frown before she just nodded. "Okay," she said carefully. "But I'm gonna change into something purple when whoever it is gets back." With that, she ordered him out of the room so that she could change into the shirt, shooing him with both hands.

A few moments later, Kurt teleported back in with a nervous glance at the now-opened bathroom door — where there was easily an inch of water on the floor. Logan had his back turned to the bedroom where Katie was and was giving Kurt a look as soon as the smoke cleared. "She's an even bigger pain than before."

Kurt set down the bag of clothes and just crossed over to where Logan stood with a look of urgency. "How did this happen?" he asked, his tail switching frantically behind him. "Who's done this to her?"

"All I know is that she got knocked out by the Hand, but when she woke up — screaming — she was _four and a half_. Her clothes still fit though, so ... I don't … don't think it _could_ be the Hand. That's just not the kind of magic they do."

Kurt frowned deeper at that. "Four and a half," he repeated quietly, then shook his head. "That can't be a coincidence."

"That's what she told me when I asked how old she was, anyhow."

"Mr. Logan, you made that weird noise again," Katie said as she came out of her bedroom wearing an overly large shirt that she was fiddling with to keep it on her shoulders. But when she looked up and saw Kurt — she screamed outright and quickly hid behind Logan's legs, shouting, "Logan, _help_!" at the top of her lungs.

He rested a hand on her head and tried to soothe her. "He's a friend, Katie, he won't hurt you."

She latched onto him and buried her face in his leg. "Uh-uh," Katie informed the side of his leg, just holding onto him that much tighter.

"Have you ever seen the X-Men on the news, Katie?" Logan asked with a troublemaking smirk Kurt's way.

"Are you going to call them?" Katie asked, looking up with wide eyes.

"Don't need to. Nightcrawler here is one of them," he told her. "They're really good at protecting people. Him especially."

She peeked around Logan to look at Kurt more carefully, eyes slightly narrowed as she sized him up. "You promise he's not a bad guy?" she asked slowly, still clutching Logan.

"Cross my heart," Logan replied. "He's the _best_ good guy. He just doesn't look like it."

Very carefully, Katie nodded and let go of Logan. "Okay," she said quietly. "You can stay, Mr. Nightcrawler. But only 'cause Mr. Logan says so."

Logan tried valiantly to keep from laughing at that, but there was no way he could keep from grinning Kurt's way. "Don't forget it, Mr. Nightcrawler," Logan said to Kurt with his eyes twinkling.

Kurt just shot Logan a look before he crouched down to be closer to Katie's height, though he didn't make a move closer to her. "It looks like you need some new clothes, Katie," he said kindly, to which Katie just nodded.

"Mr. Logan doesn't have anything purple." She leaned forward, eyes wide, and in what she probably thought was a whisper added, "And he doesn't like ice cream. He's _silly_."

Kurt had to laugh at that. "Yes, he is," he agreed before he reached for the bag of clothes to give to her to look through. "I tried to find you some new purple outfits," he explained, watching her little face light up as she looked through what he'd brought.

She delightedly pulled out some purple print pajamas and hugged them to her chest. "Thank you, Mr. Nightcrawler," she said with a bright smile. She leaned forward a bit as she added, "I'm sorry I screamed at you."

"It's alright, Katie," Kurt replied with a little smile. "I don't mind that much." He looked up at Logan and had to ask, "Did you scream when you saw Mr. Logan too?"

She looked a little bit embarrassed. "Only a little," she admitted.

"Then I don't feel bad at all," Kurt replied.

Katie looked between the two of them for a moment before she just clutched the pajamas to her chest. "I'm going to get dressed," she announced, then looked over at Kurt with a smile. "You should meet my guardbody. He's the best guardbody in the whole world, he says."

Kurt looked over at Logan, the smirk obvious. "Yes, he is that," he said.

When Katie disappeared into her room again, Logan's phone went off, and he let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was Jess. "You got a hot date I screwed up for you?" he asked as a means of hello. "Or was it the thought of a tiny Hawkeye running around that got you worked up and excited for one of your own?"

Even over the phone, the scoffing noise Jess made was obvious. "You are just so frikkin' hilarious. What the heck even happened, Logan?" she asked.

"She got knocked out and woke up screaming like that," he told her. "No flamin' clue as to what kicked it off, but I've been playin' hell trying to get her to calm down and just go to sleep."

"Sounds like you have things under control," Jess said, the laughter obvious in her voice.

"Oh come on," Logan replied. "I don't flamin' know what the hell to do with one this small."

"How old is she, anyway?" Jess asked, some of the seriousness coming back. "You need a woman around for the toilet training parts?"

"Fer christsake, Jess," he muttered with a growl. "She says she's four and a half, and judging by how damn independent she's trying to be — I don't think she needs anyone's help in that department."

"Well, that's something." Jess let out a sigh. "Alright, I'm on my way. Just - try not to get child care called on you where you are."

"We're in Madripoor — pretty sure they got bigger child protective issues than one very spoiled little girl."

Jess chuckled at that and said, "I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm just going to pick up a few child-friendly things I _know_ you don't have."

"Yeah, she already got after me about the disappointing lack of bath toys." Logan glanced at Kurt. "Didn't think I needed to pack 'em for Kurt's girlfriend. Now I know."

"Have you told Kurt yet?" Jess asked with genuine concern.

"He's ... standing right here. They've been introduced. Mr. Nightcrawler has been allowed to stay."

Jess just chuckled to herself. "I'd better fly fast. Sounds like I'm missing the fun," she said.

"Bring her something sweet and she'll probably decide you're her favorite."

"Didn't take you for the type to lure in sweet little girls with candy," Jess said, barely keeping her laughter in check.

"You know, I used to like you," Logan replied. "You're lettin' Clint rub off on you."

"I'll see you in a bit, Logan," Jess said, her laughter a bit more subdued as she hung up.

A few moments later, Katie came out of the bedroom, her pajama pants on backwards but otherwise dressed properly. She looked between the two of them and saw the phone in Logan's hand. "Still no, huh?" she asked tiredly.

Logan glanced at Kurt quickly in a silent promise to explain later. "Sorry kiddo. You ready for bed, or you wanna watch a movie or something?"

"Do you have _Aristocats_?" she asked excitedly. "That's my _favorite_."

"No idea," Logan replied as he looked to Kurt. "Wanna see what you can come up with?"

Kurt nodded and quickly made his way to the living room area, where there was a wide variety of newer Pixar movies — but no _Aristocats_.

"Would it be alright if we watched something else, _Kuken_?" Kurt asked with a little smile as he gave Katie a few options to choose from.

She scrunched up her little face in concentration. "Are these _new_?" she asked. "I've never seen them. Are they scary? I don't like scary."

"I don't think they're too scary," Kurt replied. "Maybe little bits here and there."

She considered that for a moment and then nodded, picking out _Tangled_ for the movie and handing it rather solemnly to Kurt. "Okay. But if I have bad dreams, it's your fault," she told him severely. She climbed onto the middle of the couch and curled up in a little blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She was still humming the _Aristocats_ theme to herself while Kurt started up the movie and looked surprised when he and Logan sat down on the couch on either side of her. "Are you gonna watch the movie too?" she asked.

"No, we're just going to keep you company in case it's scary," Kurt replied.

"Really?" She beamed at him. "That's really nice of you."

"Told you he was the best good guy," Logan replied as he started scrolling through his messages.

"You were right," Katie agreed. She snuggled deeper into her blanket and then shushed them as the movie started up, entirely content with herself and grinning ear to ear.

Watching Katie was far more entertaining than watching the movie itself as she reacted openly to everything on the screen, giggling delightedly at every joke and wincing dramatically every time a good guy got in trouble — though she didn't ever talk at more than a whisper and kept checking over her shoulders to see if she was bothering Logan or Kurt before she would go back to her delighted movie-watching. It didn't take long before she was obviously tired out, but any attempt to pause the movie got a _very_ stern look, because she wanted to know how it ended.

As the end of the movie approached, Katie seemed to get progressively more concerned, until she was all but hiding in Logan's side when Mother Gothel had captured Rapunzel and Flynn. She had one fistful of his shirt but insisted that he was _not_ allowed to turn off the movie even though she was hardly watching it out of one eye.

"I can't feel my arm, Katie. You wanna move a little?" Logan teased with a little smirk.

She looked up at him for a second and then just started to climb up into his lap so she could still watch the movie and hold onto him at the same time. Even after the scary part was over, she didn't seem to want to move once she was there, either.

When he tried to pick her up, she wrapped herself halfway around him with a death grip around his neck. "Want me to tuck you in?" Logan asked.

She thought about it and stuck out her bottom lip. "I don't want to sleep in there all by myself," she whined tiredly.

"Then you should stay here and snuggle Logan," Kurt suggested. "I'm told he's a wonderful teddy bear." Logan just half glared at him over Katie's shoulder for a moment.

Katie didn't see the glare as she settled into a good hug, pulling her blanket with her and attempting to share it with Logan as best she could. Once she was tucked in, it really didn't take the exhausted little girl long to fall right asleep, still half hanging onto Logan.

Logan gave it a little while before he tried to get up, but any shift other than to just settle in deeper was met with a tightened grip and a little whimper until Logan just gave up and shifted a bit to put his feet up. "This should be you, Elf," Logan said to Kurt.

"Oh, I would have loved snuggling a teddy bear like you at that age," Kurt teased. Logan just rolled his eyes but tried to relax as Katie sighed in her sleep and appeared perfectly content.

"We gotta fix this, Elf," Logan told him. "Something tells me she's not going to wake up as herself - and on the off chance she does, she's not going to be happy _here._ "

Kurt settled into a bit of a frown as he looked over the two of them. "Agreed," he said, shaking his head. "And sooner rather than later would be preferred. Who do we know that might know what's happened here?" he asked thoughtfully, as much to himself as to Logan.

"Strange? Ilyana? Like I said, the more I think of it — I don't think the Hand could pull it off like this."

"No," Kurt agreed. "And it doesn't seem their style, anyway." He ran a hand over his face as he leaned back. "This is what happens when I leave the two of you alone, Logan," he said at last, the ghost of a smile on his face.

"Don't blame me on this one," he said quietly as Kate snuggled in a little more, causing both men to stop for a moment and just watch her until she settled out again. "No way I did it."

"Perhaps our next stop should be the mansion — and call Ilyana," Kurt suggested. "This is no place for someone Katie's... age."

"We're waiting for Jess," Logan replied. "The girls have spent some time, she should be able to shed a little light on the kid. She's different. Not like other tiny girls I've run across."

"How so?" Kurt asked with a small frown.

"Like the independence isn't an act."

Kurt frowned deeper at that and looked over Katie as something flashed just behind his eyes before he shook his head again. "Perhaps she's always been this stubborn," he offered quietly. He looked up at Logan with an attempted smile. "Or perhaps she's just trying to get rid of her guardbody."

"See, that's just it. She's reluctant to get close - until now anyhow."

"You do seem to have a way with young children," Kurt said with a soft smile.

"Is that why we're best friends?" Logan shot back.

Kurt chuckled. "Of course," he said without hesitation. "Where would I be without my teddy bear?" he teased.

"Careful, Elf," Logan replied with one eyebrow raised. "Your demon is showing."

Kurt just smirked his way as he reached over to adjust the blanket over Katie's shoulders. "Whoever has done this," he said with a bit of a frown, "I don't think I like how… vulnerable she is this way."

"She's got a good guardbody," Logan said with a little laugh. "No one's gonna hurt her."

"Not with you around, certainly," Kurt agreed with a soft smile. He stood up from the couch and just smirked Logan's way. "I think I'll turn in. Do you two need any extra blankets?" he asked.

"She's cookin' me out as it is," Logan replied. "Go to bed."

Kurt just shook his head and stood to go sleep in what should have been Logan's bed while his best friend just tipped his head forward a bit to rest against Katie's as she slept peacefully on his chest.

* * *

 **Footnote: Also, if you haven't heard, please check out 'TeamAwesomeLives,' the account we set up after the Avenger Games collaboration we were both in. It's pretty much our take on that universe now that the collab has finished its first part and went in a totally different direction than we were expecting. We had all these plans! They must be shared!**


	2. Katie vs The X-Men

**CC says: Hi. Thanks for hanging in there, glad to see you're enjoying little Katie. She's a ball of sunshine and trouble and definitely a keeper. And. Yes. Snuggles with the bestest guard body ever is super duper excellent.**

 **Robbie says: I mean, Logan *is* a hug magnet. And this is the most hug magnet-y of hug magnet situations, really. Had to be done. And, you know, JD, you're right. Kurt was taking this a bit too well. Hard to freak out in front of a tiny Hawkeye, though. Let's see if we can freak him out a little more... ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: "Katie v. the X-Men"**

The next morning, Kurt was the first awake in their hotel suite - and he had been awake for a while now, not quite able to sleep with Kate in the state she was - and he went to the kitchen to start the usual pot of coffee brewing, passing Logan and Katie on the couch along the way.

He had to stop and smile, though, despite everything, when he saw both of them knocked out like that and, very quietly, he snapped a few pictures before either of them could wake up.

Once the coffee was done, he noticed a few of the bamfs hovering very carefully close to Logan and Katie. Thankfully, they were quiet, but when they caught Kurt looking their way, they quickly teleported out of sight again and reappeared near the coffee maker, wide-eyed and curious about the entire situation.

"Don't look at me," Kurt told them, with his arms crossed and a bit of a grumpy frown on his face. "I don't know what's happening any more than you do."

One of the bamfs chattered back at him, gesturing at Katie and looking downright upset.

"I didn't do it," he half hissed at the little guy. "And you're not helping."

The bamfs all glanced at each other, a little taken aback at Kurt's annoyance, before they more or less scattered. With a sigh, he busied himself getting the coffee ready and occasionally glancing over to where the other two were still passed out. He was just about ready to pour the first mug of coffee when Kurt looked up on hearing a knock on the door and teleported over from the kitchen to answer it.

Jessica Drew looked tired as she slipped inside with a mumbled, "hi there," and the first thing he did was offer her some coffee to help recover from the long flight over.

"You have to be quiet," he said to her after a moment. "I have something you need to see."

She raised an eyebrow at him over the coffee but drained the rest of her cup and then nodded. "I'm sure it can't get any weirder at this point, right?" she teased.

"Oh, I'm not so sure," Kurt replied at a whisper as he led the way, shaking his head a bit at the sheer… strangeness of the situation they'd found themselves in. "I don't know what happened - but it seems it only happens when Logan is around."

When they got to the living room to see Logan and Katie still dead to the world on the couch, Jess looked nothing short of delighted as she beamed first at the two sleeping heroes and then at Kurt. 'Too cute' she mouthed at him, still nearly bursting as she dug out her cell phone to snap her own pictures.

"Yes," Kurt said under his breath, still just a little grumpy without an awake little girl to try and keep calm and happy. "Cute was definitely the first thing that came to my mind."

Logan woke up soon after that to the sounds of Kurt trying to keep Jess from sending the picture to Clint. "Do it and I'll break your fingers, Drew," Logan said softly.

Jess just turned back to Logan with a satisfied sort of smirk. "Your girls just keep getting younger and younger," she told him, shaking her head.

He gave her a dry look for a moment before he narrowed his eyes at her. "Just jealous that you'll never qualify."

She snorted at him and waved her hand. "I brought toys and kid-friendly food. You know - not whiskey," she said, looking at both of them with a little smirk.

"Well, at least mentally you're the same age," Logan said as he tried to shift his legs a bit.

Jess just rolled her eyes. "Be nice to me. I broke a hot date for you," she told him, still smirking.

"Yeah? Find someone better'n Barton then?"

She rolled her eyes even harder at that. "If you're gonna be mean, I can just take my toys and leave you two to … whatever it is you've been doing trying to babysit that one."

"You do and I'll neuter your boy toy."

Jess shot him a _look_ and then shrugged at him, turning her attention to Katie instead. "How does she feel about Pop-Tarts?"

"She likes them as an adult — so I would imagine that would be perfect," Kurt said in an obviously relieved tone. "Thank you for your help."

Jess smiled his way. "Couldn't leave you guys out to dry," she said. "Can't be easy when your girlfriend turns into a pre-schooler."

At that, Kurt immediately turned to shoot Logan a glare and level a finger at him. "Don't start, Logan," he warned before he turned to Jess. "Please, don't give him openings like that. He's been terrible."

Jess just laughed at that. "I'll bet he has," she said, shaking her head. She smirked at the two men for a moment. "I brought enough Pop-Tarts to share," she teased.

Katie had started to stir awake as Jess was smirking at the two X-Men, and for just a moment, she looked a bit worried when she realized she didn't know where she was, but she settled out again quickly as she recognized Logan. "Can we go home yet?" she mumbled sleepily as she rubbed both of her eyes with little fists.

"We can head back to the States, but it's not time to go home just yet," he said gently.

She frowned at that but nodded all the same. "Okay." She looked up and noticed Jess for the first time and grabbed Logan's arm again. "Who're you?" she demanded, her little chin jutted out.

"Hey, Katie," Jess said with a wave and a friendly smile. "I'm Jess. I'm a friend of Logan's."

Katie scrunched up her nose and glared at Logan for a moment.

"Don't look at me like that," he warned. "She brought you toys and sugar."

She didn't look all that convinced and just glared at him deeper. "You brought your lady friend," she accused him.

He burst out laughing in spite of himself at the accusation. "Oh, no. Not her. She's got cooties." At that, Kurt joined him, though he did try not to laugh so close to Jess, who looked suddenly very unamused with the situation.

Katie considered his explanation for a moment before she just nodded. "Okay," she said, then looked up at Jess, who tried to look like she hadn't just been glaring at Logan. "What did you bring me?" she asked guardedly as she finally climbed off the couch, though she gravitated more toward Kurt than Jess, who she obviously still hadn't made up her mind about.

Jess just smiled. "I brought Pop-Tarts, and I brought some Legos and action figures," she explained as she pulled out a few Disney princess toys that Katie regarded carefully before snatching them up with a grin and apparently deciding that Jess was nice after all as she scooted a bit closer.

"I got to see a new movie last night," Katie informed Jess with a proud sort of smile. "And I was only scared a little bit."

Jess looked a bit concerned over her shoulder at Logan. "New movie, huh?" she asked Logan more than Katie.

"Yep," Logan said with a serious expression finally. "Think we can get back to the jet without any trouble, or do we need to take the quick way home?"

Jess lost her smirk as she shook her head. "You attract ninjas, Logan. Should've seen the small army I had to get past on my way here."

At that, he looked down at Katie, who had torn into the first envelope of pop tarts already. "No place for a little — _big_ girl." He made the correction only because she was staring up at him from where she was sitting cross legged on the floor. "Spoiled big girl."

"People keep using that word, but nobody will tell me what it means," she said matter-of-factly.

"It means you're acting too big for your britches, half pint."

She scrunched her nose up at him. "Because I'm a _big_ girl," she told him, accentuating her point with her Pop-Tarts leveled at him.

"You're a bossy big girl," Logan returned. "But we're used to you like that."

She stuck her tongue out at him and just went back to eating her Pop-Tarts.

"Kurt - you wanna send the little bamfs to scout out the block, see what kind of time we've got to work with here?" Logan asked. "Give the little one a chance to get a sugar high going before we take the direct route. SHIELD can pick up their jets later." He directed the last part at Jess, who didn't seem willing to argue the point. "Wonder if Summers feels like babysitting for a while."

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Katie cut in, her nose scrunched up as soon as she heard mention of 'babysitting.'

"Not really," Logan told her with furrowed brows. "I don't think Summers could handle you."

"Good." She tossed her knotted and messy hair over her shoulder. "Because you're the best guardbody. I don't _want_ another one."

"Well, Kurt and I'll take care of you as long as we can," Logan promised. "But if you're done with your breakfast, we should get going." He paused and tipped his head Kurt's way. "Think you can give Mr. Nightcrawler a hug?"

But at that, Katie just raise an eyebrow at him and pushed out her lower lip, suddenly glaring. "No hugging," she said, shaking her finger at him.

"But you gave Logan a hug," Kurt pointed out with a bit of a frown.

"Only because I was _a little bit_ scared of the movie," Katie insisted. "That doesn't count."

"Well, think about it, please," Kurt said before he straightened up a bit. "I"ll be right back." With that, Kurt teleported away to check out their timeline, since ninjas on the roof would mean they'd need to leave immediately.

Logan took the moment of near privacy to take a few steps closer to a still smirking Jess. "You alright, Drew?" Logan asked, looking genuinely concerned.

"Of course I am," she said with a smile before she did a bit of a double take at his expression, and the smile fell. "I'm _fine_ , Logan."

He narrowed his eyes a bit and glanced to her stomach for just an instant. "You sure?"

She looked visibly taken aback for a moment before she shored up her serious face. "I'm fine. I promise. It's alright." With that, she gave him a little kiss on the cheek when Katie's back was turned. "I'll fill you in later, okay?"

As soon as he nodded her way, several small puffs of smoke appeared around the room as a handful of bamfs showed up wearing concerned looks, clearly having just teleported back from a fight.

"And that answers that question," Logan said to Jess as the two of them scrambled to grab only what was necessary and Logan crouched down to talk with Katie. "Alright, you ready to get outta this room, kiddo?"

She nodded. "Where are we going? Are we going to another hotel? Is Dad gonna meet us there?" she asked in a rush, clutching one of her new toys to her chest and half hiding behind Logan with one eye on the bamfs, though since they saw her looking their way, they were doing their level best to look non-threatening — or as non-threatening as it was possible for demons to look.

"We're gonna go to where the X-Men live," Logan told her honestly.

She giggled delightedly as she seemed to be entirely distracted from the little demons at the prospect. "Really?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Really," he said as he extended his arm for her to grab onto him.

She frowned at him for a moment and crossed her arms. "I know how to walk."

"We're not walkin' Katie," Logan told her. "I know you're big enough to do that all on your own. This is somethin' you've never done before."

Katie considered this for a long moment before, at last, she grabbed onto his arm with a wide smile. "That sounds fun."

He nodded his head as the bamfs came a little closer, their heads tipped to the side. But before they could get too close for comfort for little Katie, Kurt reappeared, and he had a cut across his cheekbone. "Ready to go?" he asked, wide-eyed, before he glanced down at Katie. Logan picked her up and nodded his head.

"This might tickle," Logan warned her. "Try not to laugh and hold on tight."

She nodded seriously and held on to his arm. "Okay. Let's do it."

Kurt laid a hand on each of them with a bamf on each shoulder, and a moment later, they were in the foyer of the mansion in Westchester, though Jess didn't seem to appreciate the two bamfs attached to her legs that had brought her with wide, toothy grins.

Katie, on the other hand, was giggling delightedly and holding onto Logan's arm. "That was fun!" she announced loudly before she clapped a hand over her mouth to try and quiet down, still giggling. She looked around the foyer as her smile slipped into truly uncontrollable levels. "Mr. Nightcrawler ... is this where you _live_?"

"Yes it is," he replied with a little smile as Logan set her down. "Would you like me to show you around? I have a very fuzzy blue friend who would love to meet you."

Katie giggled. "But _you're_ fuzzy and blue," she said.

"He's even fuzzier and a different blue," Kurt promised as he crouched down next to her and couldn't help but smile at her pure _delight_ as she took in the mansion and everything in it.

Katie tipped her head at Kurt, her lower lip poking out as she clearly considered this development. "What about all the little ones?" she asked, pointing at the bamfs.

"They are my little cousins," Kurt told her, settling on the least confusing explanation for the little girl. "They think you're very pretty."

As if to emphasize the point, one of the little bamfs produced a daisy to her with a big grin as it said 'bamf'.

Katie just beamed as she took the daisy, then looked up at Kurt. "Can I hug them?" she asked shyly.

"I think they would like that very much - but if you start that, you will be very busy hugging them all." He leaned a bit closer to whisper the last part: "They are very jealous if they think one of them gets more snuggles than the others."

She giggled and nodded very seriously. "Okay," she said, looking at the little bamf who had produced the daisy before she just gave him a little pat on the head. "I don't want anybody to get jealous." With that, she looked back up at Kurt. "Does your fuzzy blue friend have cousins, too? Because that's a _lot_ of hugs if I start doing that."

"No, my fuzzy blue friend doesn't have any cousins," Kurt assured her. "We're the only fuzzy big ones - but he looks very different from me."

She beamed and grabbed his hand in hers. "Okay. Let's go say hi," she said before she looked over her shoulder at Logan. "Come on, Mr. Logan. We get to meet a fuzzy blue person who's not Mr. Nightcrawler!"

"You can go along without me," Logan said, hoping to get a break and talk to someone a bit more grown-up for five minutes to try and find a solution to the tiny trouble.

She stuck out her lower lip in a pout. "But you gotta!" she said, stamping one foot as she just stopped right in the middle of the floor to glare at Logan. "I'm not _supposed_ to go anywhere with strangers. Not even X-Men!"

He bit his tongue as he looked up at the incredibly amused look on Kurt's face. "Alright, fine," Logan replied, stepping forward until Katie grabbed his hand too. They hadn't gotten all the way to the elevator before she was asking them to swing her between them and giggling delightedly, clearing having the time of her life.

When they did finally get down to the medical wing, Katie looked a bit more apprehensive, though. "I don't wanna," she told Logan firmly as she eyed the medical equipment. "I don't _wanna_ go to the doctor. You _tricked_ me!"

"If you behave, he'll give you a Twinkie," Logan promised. He leaned down a bit to add in a whisper, "And no shots, or I'll punch him in the face."

She tried very hard to frown but giggled anyway. "No shots," she agreed firmly. "And you gotta stay with me to make sure." He nodded solemnly, and she set her little jaw as she faced the door and strode very determinedly through toward where Hank was working.

Once they were there, though, they were surprised to find that they weren't Hank's only patients. Noh-Varr and Jubilee were back from whatever they had been doing in space, and Hank was looking over some stitches in the back of Jubilee's head as she winced, all while Noh, with a wrapped-up chest, looked on in concern.

"Oh, the doctor's busy. Oh well! We have to go home!" Katie announced as she tried to turn around and leave before Logan very gently put a hand on her shoulder and she just settled into a glare, her arms crossed.

Noh stared openly at Katie as Jubilee sat up a little straighter and looked like she couldn't quite believe her eyes. "You promised me that we wouldn't do any time travelling!" Jubilee accused her little Kree boyfriend as she reached over and pinched Noh's arm. "That is a baby Hawk if I ever saw one!"

Noh just shook his head with wide eyes. "If there was any time traveling, it was not my doing," he swore with a hand over his heart. "My readings said this was the right Earth, the right universe - we were only gone for a few weeks!"

"I'm not a baby," Katie said with a little pout Jubilee's way, clearly not sure if she should be insulted by being called a 'baby hawk' or not.

"Tell 'em your name, kiddo," Logan prompted her gently.

She looked up at Logan and then at Noh and Jubilee before she just let out a sigh at being forced to do anything and cocked her hip as she looked over the couple in the medical bay. "My name's Katie — and _I'm not a baby_ ," she said.

Logan just gave the two of them a pointed look. "Sound familiar?"

Noh was shaking his head in surprise. "What happened to her?" he asked. "I didn't see any temporal anomalies when we arrived, but if it was small and localized enough, perhaps I could check…"

"I have no idea," Logan replied. "But you're welcome to try and solve the mystery."

"I'll scan the area," Noh promised. "If you give me the coordinates of this ... event … perhaps I can shed a little light." He shook his head at Kate. "But I have to confess — I've never heard of this sort of phenomenon before. Not confined to one person."

"We were in Madripoor, fighting ninjas," Logan told him. "Good luck."

Katie, meanwhile, had gotten bored with the conversation between Noh and Logan and turned her attention to Hank, who was regarding her with a small smile once he saw her gaze on him. "You're right, Mr. Nightcrawler. He is fuzzier than you," she declared at last, nodding once, and Kurt just had to beam at her and crouch down to ruffle her hair.

"Hey Kurt — you look good with a little girl in pigtails keeping you company!" Jubilee shouted out before she turned to Katie. "Are you keeping him out of trouble?"

Katie looked wide-eyed. "Am I supposed to?" she asked. "I thought he was taking care of _me_!"

"But that's _how_ he keeps out of trouble," Jubilee told her in a mock whisper.

"Jubilee, please," Kurt said, shaking his head.

"Watch it," Jubilee said. "He's thinking of sneaking off for trouble making."

"Oooh." Katie spun on her foot to shake her finger at Kurt. "That's not allowed. No sneaking!"

Kurt shook his head quickly. "I'm not planning on going anywhere you don't want me to," he told her, and she nodded, apparently satisfied with his answer.

Suddenly, Katie found herself facing the friendly face of the good doctor as he slid his chair over to her. "Why, hello," Hank said warmly. "What can I do for you today?"

She stepped a bit closer to almost hide behind Kurt and looked him over carefully. "Mr. Logan said you have Twinkies," she said in a shy voice nothing like the voice she had been using to demand that Kurt not sneak around. "And he also said he'd punch you if you gave me a shot."

Hank smiled wider. "He really doesn't like needles," Hank told her quietly. "So no shots. Just a quick look at your eyes and ears perhaps? Can I listen to your heart?"

She seemed a bit unsure but nodded shyly. "Okay," she said. "That doesn't sound _too_ bad."

He set about doing a quick but thorough physical on her, playing little games with her to get her to cooperate, and as promised, when he was done, he offered her a Twinkie. "For a job well done, young lady."

She grinned delightedly as she took the Twinkie. "I can handle doctors when there's no shots," she said very proudly. She peered at him as she started to unwrap the treat. "So ... I'm not sick, right? I don't like being sick."

"No, you're not sick at all," he told her earnestly. "You appear to be perfectly healthy."

"Oh good." She kicked her feet over the edge of the examination table happily as she took a bite of Twinkie, already getting some of it on her face. She leaned forward and told Hank, "I'm going to get to stay with the _X-Men_ until Daddy gets done with work."

"And you are welcome to stay with us for as long as you need," Hank promised.

She beamed at him before she turned to Logan and Kurt. "I want to play outside," she announced, addressing Kurt specifically. "I think your little cousins can play too if they're nice. But no cheating!" She shook her finger to emphasize her point. "We can play tag."

"That sounds like a lot of fun, Katie," Kurt agreed before he turned to Logan. "Doesn't it?" Logan looked irritated at him for a moment.

"As long as you don't expect me to play, fine. Whatever," Logan grumbled.

"That's okay. You can make sure nobody cheats," Katie told him warmly before she grabbed Kurt's hand again. "Come on. You're it first," she told him as she dragged him along.

They didn't get very far before Katie suddenly realized that she had to ask how to get outside in the first place, but she still seemed determined to lead the way, only asking directions instead of letting either of the X-Men lead.

Once they were outside and the game began, Katie had a moment of four-year-old frustration when the bamfs just poofed away from her if she got too close, and she very nearly threw a fit until one of them grabbed her by the hand and teleported her right next to Kurt so she could tag him "it," looking very concerned as she sniffled a bit to calm back down and then declared that the 'smoky poofy thing' was okay as long as _she_ could do it too.

"Everybody has to play fair," she insisted to the bamf still holding her hand, and he just looked wide-eyed at her and nodded.

Both Logan and Kurt had to laugh as, after that, Katie actually wore the bamfs out before she started to tire out herself, as she wanted to be teleported everywhere, and the little guys wanted to keep her from getting upset at them again. They were all well and truly worn out — but had each gotten little Katie kisses on the cheek — by the time Kurt suggested that it was time to go inside for lunch, and Katie's little audience was more than entertained by the small army of exhausted little demons.

"I think they need naps," Katie whispered to Kurt with a little giggle as she let him lead her back inside. "They're littler than me, so they need 'em more."

"What'd you do to wear 'em out, kiddo?" Logan asked with a twinkle in his eye. "I don't think I've ever seen 'em so tired."

"They wanted to play tag with their smoky poofy powers, so I told them that was only fair if I could poof too," Katie explained matter-of-factly.

"Nice work," he told her as she grinned and marched herself up toward the nearest door.

Kurt shook his head and shot his best friend a little smile. "I've never seen them so worn out either - unless it was in battle," he said. "Where does all that energy come from?" he asked, looking a bit worn himself from playing with Katie and the bamfs, as he followed the skipping little girl up to the mansion.

Katie led the way to the kitchen and was determined to fix her own sandwich as she just started looking for peanut butter and jelly in the pantry, stubbornly refusing to ask for help as she pushed a chair to the counter so she could reach the bread. By the time she was done, she had made a mess of the counter, but she had made herself a sandwich, complete with the crusts cut off, and she climbed happily up into a seat at the table, wearing half the peanut butter jar on her shirt and humming to herself again.

"Do you need a bath after every meal?" Logan asked as she finished up, wearing what appeared to be half the contents of her sandwich.

She just beamed at him contentedly. "I can do it myself," she said as she toddled over to the fridge to find herself something to wash down her sandwich, leaving peanut butter handprints on the fridge.

"Kurt — your little buddy is leavin' a trail," Logan told him with a little frown.

Kurt sighed and wet down a cloth to start wiping off the handprints — and the rest of the mess Katie had left in her wake. "Katie," he said her way as she poured herself a glass of milk that sloshed on the counter, "are you sure you don't want help?"

"Nope!" she said happily, which only got Kurt to sigh again.

"Since when do we take itty bitties?" asked a new voice from the doorway.

Katie looked up and nearly spilled the rest of the milk in her glass when she saw Spiderman leaned against the doorframe. "Spiderman!" she declared happily as she hopped down off her chair and ran over to him — but stopped short of a tackling hug and turned suddenly very shy as she hid her face behind the pantry door.

"It's okay, Katie," Logan told her. "He loves his little friends."

Katie peeked out again to look at Peter with a shy smile. "Hi," she said, opening and closing one sticky, peanut butter-y hand.

"Hello," Peter replied with a little wave. "Are you lost?"

She shook her head and giggled. "No-o-o-o," she said very seriously and shook her head at him. "I'm _allowed_ to be here! Mr. Nightcrawler said it was okay."

"Well, if Mr. Nightcrawler says it's okay," Peter laughed. He looked toward Kurt and Logan for a moment as Katie cautiously looked him over. "Where'd you find this one?" he asked over her shoulder when she finally decided it would be safe to run over and give him a very sticky hug.

"She was in Hawkeye's room," Logan told him. "Right, Katie?"

Katie looked over and nodded happily before she told Peter, "Mr. Logan didn't have any purple clothes. Can you believe that?"

"Uh - no. How could he overlook something like that?" Peter said quickly, though he was looking past her at Logan, eyes obviously wide behind his mask.

"I don't know," Katie said. "You'd think he would know something so _important_."

"Well, sometimes he misses things like that," Peter said. He shook his head a couple times as if he was trying to wrap his head around it, then asked her, "Are you staying with Mr. Nightcrawler then?"

"I get to stay here with _all the X-Men_ ," Katie informed him brightly.

"You sure do," Pete replied. "But there are an awful lot of them, aren't there?"

"So many," Katie agreed. She tipped her head at Logan. "It's okay though. Mr. Logan said he'd punch anybody who scares me."

"That - is a very scary threat," Peter said with a little tremor to his voice.

She shook her head with a smile. "I don't get scared easy," she promised, patting his shoulder consolingly. "I made it almost _all_ the way through the movie last night, and I was only scared a little bit." With that, she beamed and tugged on his hand. "You should come and play with us! We can play cards."

"What kind of card game are you playing?" Pete asked, tipping his head to the side. "I'm not good at a lot of those. But I can play Go Fish and War like nobody's business."

She grinned delightedly. "Oooh, play Go Fish with us, _pretty please_?"

He glanced up at Logan then back to Katie. "Sure. That would be fun."

She beamed and took him by the hand to lead him back to the table, completely oblivious to the _shocked_ look that Peter was giving the two X-Men with his entire body language.

"Mr. Logan, are you going to play this time?" she asked as Kurt sat down on her other side and tried to wipe off her hands and face as best he could while she was temporarily stationary.

"No, darlin'," he replied. "Not my kinda game."

She stuck her tongue out at him and leaned over to whisper to Peter, "He's a good guardbody, but he's a little bit _boring_."

"Yeah, I'm not real big with the Kindergarten crowd," Logan agreed before he turned to Peter. "Hopefully we won't need the Kindergarten teacher come fall."

"Do we - you know, have a way to un-Kindergarten our hawk?" Peter asked carefully, looking specifically at Kurt as Kurt shuffled the cards for Katie and showed off by teleporting away with a few of them in midair before returning to press the cards to her forehead as she giggled delightedly and applauded, clearly delighted with his theatrics - at least that hadn't changed.

"Working on it," Logan said quietly.

Katie was dutifully dealing the cards for Peter and Kurt when the four of them were joined by another newcomer at the door, and Clint looked somewhere between delighted and horrified as he took in the scene in front of him. "Katie?" he called out, and when she looked up at him, he burst into surprised laughter.

"Who's that?" Katie asked Kurt loudly, tugging on his sleeve a bit. "Is he an X-Man too?"

Clint just kept on laughing as he shook his head. "Naw — they only let one Hawkeye into the club at a time," he told her with a wide shrug and a grin. "I'm Clint. I'm — well, I'm an Avenger." He gestured down at himself - he wasn't wearing his uniform, just jeans and tee shirt, so he added, "Left my suit at home, sorry."

She blinked up at him in surprise and then broke into a little grin. "Really?"

"Really really."

She let out a delighted giggle and then looked over her shoulder at Logan. "Mr. Logan, how come you know so many cool people?" she asked him.

"I really couldn't tell you," he replied as he leaned back and put his feet up. "They seem to just hang around me."

Clint just chuckled and watched for a while as Katie played Go Fish with Kurt and Peter and slipped over to where Logan was to lean against the counter. "So. Jess told me what's going on. She's working on finding Strange, since he's not at his sanctum right now."

"I think Hank is looking into finding Ilyanna — find one and we'll find the other," Logan said with a nod. "And Noh's trying to figure out how it happened if it's more temporal science than magic."

"Well, with an investigations team like that…" Clint just grinned and shook his head, tipping his chin the slightest in Kate's direction. "Gotta be weird, seeing her like that. I mean. Always joked she was a kid, but this? This is different."

"Her brain is _exactly_ the same," Logan muttered.

"Must be the curse of the Hawkeyes," Clint joked easily. He leaned back a bit further. "Good to see she's making friends, though. Jess was worried she might be too scared to when she told me about the mini-Hawkeye."

"Why would she think that?" Logan asked with a distinct frown, as if the idea was absurd.

Clint shrugged. "She and Jess have hung out a lot — you know, hazard of knowing me. There's a support group for the girls in my life and all, apparently. Nat's the president. And I guess they've swapped stories while they're out going to the spa or whatever?" He shrugged again. "Anyway, way Jess tells it — nobody solid in that kid's life until she was shipped off to school. Staff was always changing as soon as she got to making friends. So she just — stopped trying."

"That … makes me feel better about the little side trip that you and I took," Logan replied, his frown deepening a bit. "Though ... she keeps asking for him."

"Yeah, he was sort of her hero until she got old enough to realize he wasn't coming home, you know?" Clint said with a little frown. "What're you telling her — he's just gone?"

"Just puttin' it off. Not around. Too busy. That kind of thing." He shook his head a little bit. "Doesn't even sound surprised by it."

"See, you say things like that and it just makes me want to feed her sugar and let you guys deal with the consequences," Clint said, shaking his head.

"Don't do that," he said with a little frown. "She already's got mood swings goin' on from brave to little scared kitten."

"Like you said - she hasn't changed at all," Clint said with a smirk.

"Screamed at Kurt," Logan said with a matching smirk. "Been callin' him Mr. Nightcrawler."

"Please tell me you got that on video somewhere," Clint said, grinning wide now. "The Mr. Nightcrawler bit, not the screaming."

"Nah, but she's still doin' it — so there's time. At least until someone fixes it."

"You need any help in that department?" Clint asked, leaning back in his seat to watch Logan for a moment. "Anything I can do?"

Logan just shrugged. "Help yourself. You probably need something more entertaining crap on your phone anyhow."

Clint shot him a look and then rolled his shoulder as he crossed over to ask Katie if he was allowed to play with them. She glanced at Kurt, who nodded, and then she agreed to let him play with them after the game they were currently playing — though it was obvious she was starting to fall asleep in her chair about halfway through that game.

"I think it's naptime for you," Kurt told her when she was slipping sideways, and he could tell she was indeed tired when she didn't fight him hard on that front and instead just leaned over on his arm and let him carry her out of the kitchen.

She fell asleep on his shoulder as he carried her down the hall, which _delighted_ Jubilee when she was headed up from the medical wing to get some food of her own.

When she saw the two of them, she clapped both hands over her mouth and all but danced in place with glee before she pulled out her cell phone and started to record the two of them, biting her lip to keep from waking the slumbering little girl. "You two _so_ need a little girl. Or like. Eight."

Kurt smiled at her and just shook his head. "This — isn't the same thing and you know it, Jubilee," he said with mock severity. "Any child of ours would be part demon — and likely twice as much trouble," he added as he started to grin, unable to keep up the severe tone. He shifted Katie in his arms as he spoke, and she only snuggled in tighter with her arms around his neck. "I'm not sure the universe is ready for such a thing," he added, smirking.

"Oh. But - you _so_ are," she said, grinning. "And you know it too. Look at you."

He just smiled her way crookedly. "Maybe," he conceded before he tried for a slightly more serious look. "But I do believe you'd have to talk to Kate — _our_ Kate — first."

"Oh. I am so sending this to her," Jubilee said with a nod. "The first time she acts like she's not sure about something — it's going to her inbox … and not a second sooner."

"Please, Jubilee, don't scare her off," Kurt said with a smirk. "I thought you liked having her around."

"Like that would scare her off. You should see yourself. You've got this … _look_ on your face."

"This is my normal face, Jubilee," he countered.

"No. No, it really isn't," she promised. "And once you tuck in _the future_? I'll show you."

Kurt just laughed at her. "Where should we tuck her in, do you think?" he asked, trying to redirect his friend.

"Well, she doesn't want to be too far from her little _guardbody,_ so I vote next to his room. It's always empty anyhow."

"That sounds like an excellent plan," he agreed as they rounded the corner.

Once they got to the room beside Logan's, it took a little work to get Katie to let go of Kurt, but finally, he got her tucked in and sound asleep, all with Jubilee giggling delightedly behind him and recording as much as she could.

"We should tell Logan about his new neighbor," he suggested in a quiet whisper once Katie was securely snuggled up in the covers. "So that he knows where to go when she wakes up looking for him."

"On it," Jubilee promised. "You can stay with her until I text you, but I am so getting the tucking on camera."

"You are having far too much fun with this," he accused her, shaking his head, though he was smirking despite his best efforts as he watched her practically dancing in place with glee.

"Duh," she replied easily. "Tell you what — if I end up being shrunk down to a tiny little thing like her, you have my full permission to document every second."

"And if you wake up from your ordeal with pictures of Noh-Varr tucking you in and reading you bedtime stories?" he asked, one eyebrow raised.

"I will cherish it," she insisted.

He just laughed as he sat down in the chair beside the bed where Katie was asleep. "I'm not sure she'll want to wake up alone in a strange place," he said. "But if you could send Wolverine here, I'd appreciate it." He smiled ruefully and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "I think when she is still waking up, before she remembers me — I still frighten her."

"Will do, fuzzy Elf," she promised before she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and slipped out of the room.

Kurt leaned back in the chair to wait for Logan, watching the rise and fall of a tiny girl breathing. Jubilee was right — Katie was darling and wonderful and charming, and he loved every second of being around her… but she wasn't his _Kate_ , either. She was still the same person, but she didn't know him or even herself, and as much as he liked this little girl, he loved that woman far more.

He just let out a breath as he thought it over. Whatever was going on… he couldn't wait to get it reversed, for both of their sakes.

It was about ten minutes before Logan showed up and let out a little sigh on seeing the scene. It was pretty clear he was already getting a little irritated with the job of babysitting a very bossy mini-Hawkeye, but — Kurt also knew that he wouldn't quit anytime soon, either. He gave Kurt a nod and settled into the chair by the window with a thick, leather-bound book in hand. "I've got it from here," Logan promised. "Unless you wanna camp out."

"I think I may check with Henry to see when we can expect Ilyana," Kurt said softly, looking up from Katie to smile at Logan. "And to find out when we can relieve you of your babysitting duties. Hopefully, we can get this cleared up before dinner," he added hopefully.

"Bodyguard. Not babysitter. And, you know where to find me," Logan agreed, kicking his feet up and slouching down a bit.

Kurt smiled and slipped out the door, waiting until it was closed behind him before he teleported off to go find Henry.


	3. Got My Sparkle Shoes and My Guardbody

**Notes from both of us: HI SILZ. Oh man, that ice cream line is a favorite of robbie's, so we're glad you liked it too ;) And Scruffy - oh yeah. Kate is having a BLAST. And it's only gonna get better!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: "Got My Sparkle Shoes and My Guardbody"**

When Katie woke up from her nap, she was brimming with energy again, this time determined to go swimming, because she'd seen a pool while she was out playing tag with the bamfs, and she had decided that was what she wanted to do next — and as the X-Men were quickly discovering, when Katie decided something, it was _happening_.

"I'm sure we've got a suit you can use downstairs," Logan told the determined little girl as she stood on her bed with her hands planted on her hips to make her demands. "Jubes and 'Ro ran off with Jess to get more clothes."

"I like Jubes," Katie said with a grin as she climbed down, now practically giggling because she'd gotten what she wanted.

"Me too," he agreed with a crooked smile.

She took him by the hand and led him down the stairs to grab the purple and white striped swimming suit - along with a pair of inflatable water wings — and when she emerged from the bathroom all dressed up and ready to go, she looked him over, frowning at his lack of a swimsuit. "Aren't you going to swim too?" she asked.

"No," he said. "Jubes and her friend Noh will take you."

"That's the one who uses big words," Katie said, wrinkling her nose.

Logan smiled at her and nodded his head. "Yeah, that's the one."

"Are you going to sit outside with us?" she asked.

"You want me to?" he asked.

She thought about it, her face scrunched up in concentration. "I guess you don't _have_ to," she said with a sigh.

"I can stay in case you want me to hit someone," he offered, smirking again.

"That would be very nice, thank you," she said, nodding fervently. "I like having someone around to hit people."

"Well I like hitting people, so that works out pretty well, I guess."

She beamed at him and took his hand again. "That's why we make a good team, Mr. Logan," she told him seriously.

When they got to the pool, half the team was out there, lounging or playing volleyball, as it was clear they weren't the only ones who were taking advantage of the gorgeous summer day. Even some of the students who lived at the mansion full-time were engaged in a cannonball competition.

"There's a lot of people," Katie said, suddenly shy again as she held onto Logan's hand. "And there's nobody my age!"

"You're smarter than half of 'em," he promised over her shoulder. "But I'll stick close."

"Okay," she agreed, putting on a braver face as she held onto his hand and dragged him toward the pool, though she looked a lot happier about it once Jubilee waved at her with a wide grin. "Hey, Jubes!" she called out happily, waving with the hand that wasn't holding Logan's.

"Hi, Katie!" Jubilee sang out brightly. "You ready to come and swim? The water's nice and warm."

Katie glanced up at Logan, and when he gave her a little nod, she skipped over to Jubes and climbed down the ladder, giggling delightedly once she had her feet wet before she slid the rest of the way in and paddled her way over to Jubes. "Is your head all better?" she asked once she got there. "I saw Dr. Fuzzy putting staples in there."

"Well. I shouldn't get it wet, but it's fine for just staying in the shallow end," Jubes told her with a smile. "It's just too nice of a day _not_ to swim!"

Katie giggled and nodded her agreement. "It's really nice outside," she said. She looked over at Logan and waved his way, then turned back to Jubilee. "Mr. Logan doesn't want to swim, though," she whispered.

"Swimming is _not_ his favorite thing," Jubilee told her with a teasing grin. "But he can walk on the bottom better than anyone else without any weights or anything."

"Ooh," Katie said delightedly. "Do you think he'll show me sometime?"

Jubilee leaned in really close to whisper in her ear. "I'll help you get him to swim next time," she promised. "But I can't show you my trick."

Katie laughed. "What can you do?" she asked. "Do you have superpowers like Mr. Nightcrawler?"

"Mine are really pretty," Jubilee whispered in a conspiratory tone. "If you don't go to sleep too early, I can show you once it gets dark, and _maybe_ if you play your cards right, we can talk Logan and Noh into a campfire."

Katie giggled delightedly at the idea of getting the two of them to do their bidding. "I've never gone camping before," she admitted. "But I _want_ to when I get older."

"Well, it's going to be the perfect night for camping and s'mores," Jubilee told her with wide eyes. "And catching fireflies."

Katie laughed and splashed around happily. "Yes, please! To all of those things!"

Jubilee winked at her and turned to Logan. "Hey! I need a favor," she called out. "Camping in the woods tonight - you know you want to get away from the house." She was giving him a pleading look, and he just glanced between her, Katie, and Noh — who looked like he clearly hadn't been consulted.

"Are you serious?" Logan asked, a frown deeply etched on his face. "Doesn't she need to sleep inside? On a bed?"

"I can do it," Katie insisted stubbornly.

"I didn't say you couldn't," Logan said. "I just think you'd be happier inside."

"Says you!" She stuck her tongue out at him. "I wanna catch _fireflies_."

"I'll pull it all together after dinner," Jubilee called out. "We can go to that little spot you like near the creek." She glanced at Katie for a moment. "Should we see if Mr. Nightcrawler wants to go too?"

"Ooh, yes," Katie agreed, nodding. "I bet he and his cousins _love_ camping!"

"I bet they will," Jubilee agreed before, all at once, a troublemaking expression lit up her face. "Ok. I can't do it — but can you splash Noh for me? He looks like he needs it."

Katie giggled and swam over to do just that, kicking and splashing at Noh as at first he looked like he was unsure of what to do before he glanced at Jubilee, smiled, and just picked Katie up out of the water to throw her, giggling and cackling, back in. Katie landed, still laughing, close enough to Jubilee that she got just a few flecks of water, but not close enough to be drenched.

"As soon as my head is healed, you are in so much trouble, mister," Jubilee promised Noh's way.

"I simply thought that you wanted to instigate a war of water," he said with an innocent expression.

"Go ahead and play dumb, I'm onto you," she said as she swam over quickly to steal a kiss before she whispered very quietly, "This means war."

"I should warn you — I was born for this kind of thing," he whispered right back.

"Well, I can show you what I was trained for once I take you prisoner."

He laughed and kissed her cheek. "I shall not try very hard to escape, I think," he told her before Katie paddled over and splashed him again with a devious grin, and he was distracted picking her up to throw her once more.

The games continued until nearly dinnertime, and they all ended up coming inside with smiles and breathless giggles for Kurt's turn making dinner — which just about everyone agreed was good for him as it gave him a chance to just… get away from the weirdness of his four-year-old girlfriend.

When they got to the dining room, the bamfs were popping around the room, setting up places and laying out dinner, giggling and trying not to fight each other and ruin all their hard work. Half of them froze when they saw little Katie holding Jubilee's hand with the big fluffy purple towel wrapped around her, and the other half practically fell over themselves to poof around and do silly somersaults or other tricks to get her attention.

"Come on, Katie, we need to get changed," Jubilee said, pushing the little girl ahead of her and further down the hall before she turned to poke Noh in the center of his chest. "No boys allowed, right, Katie?"

"Right," Katie said, nodding seriously as she also poked Noh in the knee with a pudgy finger. "No cooties!" She turned away from Noh, grinning, and saw the bamfs staring at her. "Hi, little cousins!" she said brightly, waving at them. "We just went swimming!" A couple of them waved back at her, and she giggled delightedly before pulling Jubilee along to get changed.

They showed up again a little while later, Katie in her brand new overalls and a purple t-shirt with her hair pulled into two french braids with a purple ribbon threaded through the hair and tied into bows. Jubilee had even found her a tiny pair of purple chuck taylors with sparkly laces.

Katie ran over to Logan as soon as she saw him and absolutely beamed at him. "Do you like my hair?" she asked as Kurt crouched down on the other side of her and just laughed at her wide grin. "Jubilee did it for the campfire! She said it would look really pretty, and she was _right_!"

"Of course she was," Kurt said, giving Jubilee a look that he usually reserved for his naughty bamfs. "You are the most adorable thing I've ever seen."

Katie turned the full force of a huge, beaming grin to Kurt and all but bounced in her seat. "Did you see my _shoes_?" she asked him excitedly. "They sparkle!"

He looked a bit surprised but tipped his head as she pulled the pants legs up just enough that she could show off her shoes. "They're definitely you."

She beamed happily. "I saw your cousins setting the table," she said, nodding at some of the bamfs. "I can help with things like that too, if you need help next time," she offered.

"I'll remember that," he promised. "But for now, why don't you find a place to sit before you go camping with Jubilee?"

She giggled. "I'm sitting with you and Mr. Logan, silly!" she told him.

"No one told me," he said with a note of surprise. "But in that case, come, let's take a seat."

She grinned and grabbed him by the hand to lead him over to sit on the other side of her, while Logan smirked at her as she climbed up into the chair between them, falling into her usual humming and kicking her feet since they couldn't touch the floor.

They were partway through dinner when Jubilee's camera phone went off again, and all three of them looked up at her as she grinned her way. "Just ... documenting."

Katie nodded at Jubilee before she leaned over to tap Logan on the arm. "She says it's important to get all of this doc-u-mented," she said carefully, grinning over at Jubilee and flashing her a thumbs-up.

"She just thinks you're cute and wishes she had a little girl like you," Logan told her at a whisper.

Katie giggled. "Well, she sure kisses Mr. Noh a lot," she whispered back. "They should — are they married?"

"No, they're not. Maybe you can remind her of that. Since she's so worked up about playing with sweet little girls."

"Okay." She bounced in her seat happily as she looked across the table at Jubilee. "Mr. Logan says to remind you that you're not married!" she announced, very loudly, pointing at Jubilee as she did it.

"And," Logan said prompting to see if she'd paid attention.

"Oooh. And… and you should work on playing with cute girls like me!" Katie added quickly.

"Close enough, punkin'," Logan laughed as Jubilee's face turned red and she pointed a finger his way.

"You … you are not funny," she said seriously.

"You've been doing the same thing, Jubilation," Kurt pointed out with a little smirk. "But with more documentation."

"Oooh, that's right. You have to doc-u-ment," Katie said, poking Logan in the arm.

"I'm not much for documenting," Logan told her.

"But Jubes says that's the best part," Katie said, with her arms folded slightly. "She said she's gonna show Hawkeye when she gets back."

"And I'm sure Hawkeye will appreciate it," Noh chimed in with a wide smirk at Katie. "It's important to capture memories while you are still this young. After all, children won't stay young forever." He had a mischievous gleam to his gaze that had Jubilee shaking her head at him.

"And I think that there's been plenty documenting already," Logan replied. "Unless - you two'd like to be in her shoes."

"You would certainly not like me at that age," Noh said with a small smirk. "I was quite violent."

"You were the only one I'm sure," Logan said with one eyebrow raised at Jubilee.

"No, I mean -" Noh shook his head at Logan. "I was downright murderous."

"Sounds like you hit your stride early," Logan teased.

"Oh, absolutely," Noh said, wearing a little smirk. "I emerged from my growth chamber fully prepared for conflict, but I am nothing but good intentions and old music these days."

"That better be true," Logan told him. "For your own good."

Noh turned to Jubilee with a look of alarm. "I do not understand where I turned off the road from teasing into threatening."

"That was a teasing threat," Jubilee said with a wave as she pointed toward Logan with one eye closed. "Look. Still smirking."

"It is hard to tell. I've seen him kill people with that same look," he said in a low whisper that Katie couldn't hear.

Jubilee let out a sigh and just kissed him. "Don't worry about it. He's pretty obvious when he's going to actually kill. Usually. You're totally fine." She waved him off with a bit of an unconcerned look as if this was the usual before she shot him a quick grin and kissed him on the nose.

"Mr. Logan, they're kissing again," Katie announced loudly.

"They're like that. Maybe if they do that while we're camping, you can hit 'em with a bucket of cold water."

"Would you help me do it?" she asked with a wide, troublemaking grin that looked a lot more like Hawkeye than Katie.

"Sure darlin'," Logan agreed. "If that's what you'd like to do. That or I'll give you a squirt gun."

"Ooh, I want a squirt gun," she declared happily.

"We'll take one from Bobby," he told her at a whisper. "He has all the good toys." He pointed down the table to Iceman, who gave her a little smile.

"Will he share his toys?" Katie asked. "Not everybody knows how to share," she added in a whisper.

"He will if he knows what's good for him," he promised.

"That's because you're the boss of everybody," she surmised happily. He just laughed at her and shook his head.

"You're growin' on me, Katie," Logan said with a smirk. "Hawkeye would just _hate_ to hear you say that."

"Then she doesn't know what's up," Katie said with her arms crossed. "And I'll tell her so when she gets here."

"Are you ready to camp?" Jubilee asked suddenly, trying to interrupt the quiet conversation that Logan was having with the little girl before little Katie accidentally dug her older self into too deep of a hole.

Katie nodded happily. "I've got my sparkle shoes and my guardbody," she told Jubilee. "I'm ready to camp!"

"Alright," Jubilee said before she turned to Kurt. "Can you grab the gear? Noh will help you. I have marshmallows to find."

"Of course," Kurt said with a smile before he teleported himself and Noh out of the dining room, to the obvious delight ot Katie.

By the time Logan and Jubilee had walked Katie out to the campsite, it was almost dark, and the fireflies were starting to come up out of the grass as several of the X-Men started to gather for the evening fun.

"Can we catch fireflies?" Katie asked, not seeming to care who she was asking as long as she got to play.

"Go ahead," Logan told her. "I'm going to start a fire."

"Oh, I'm not allowed to play near fire," she told him seriously. "You better do that by yourself."

"Don't worry, no playing by this fire," he told her. "But we will want it later when it gets really dark."

"I'm not scared of the dark anymore," she said, drawing herself up a bit taller. "But if you need it for making light and stuff, that would be good too."

"I'm okay, but Jubes said we need it. She's probably still a little scared of the dark," he told her, and Jubilee just glared at him as best she could when she was still fighting a smirk.

Katie turned a very serious look Jubilee's way. "I can hold your hand if you get scared," she promised solemnly.

Jubilee crouched down so they were eye to eye. "How about we catch fireflies first, and then when it's dark, I'll show you how I handle it when I get too scared of the dark?"

Katie nodded with a little excited grin. "Okay. That sounds good," she agreed.

While the guys set up camp and Logan started a little fire, Katie's giggles could be heard through the trees as she and Jubilee played. They'd caught a whole mason jar full of fireflies that were blinking and glowing at all different times by the time they headed for the fire.

Kurt was the first one that Katie saw when they got closer to the fire, and she ran up to him to show him the jar. "We got a lot of fireflies!" she announced happily. "Jubes is really, really good at it, and she helped me catch the ones that flew too tall for me."

Kurt just beamed at her for a moment. "You two are quite good, aren't you?"

Katie just nodded happily. "Do you want to hold them?" she asked shyly. "They're very pretty."

"I'd love to," Kurt agreed as she gently handed him the jar. "It looks like you have a hundred of them in there. Do you think they'll make a good night light?"

She giggled and nodded happily. "Jubes said it would help us both not be scared of the dark while we're out here," she explained.

Noh crossed over the campsite to put an arm around Jubilee's shoulders and grin down at Katie and the little jar of fireflies that Kurt was still holding. "It's a lovely light show," he said, looking now at Jubilee. "Do you think we could reproduce it on a larger scale?"

Katie pulled on Kurt's sleeve to get his attention, and when he obediently leaned closer to her, she whispered, "Where is Mr. Noh from? He doesn't sound like he's from here."

"Very far away," Kurt said with a nod. "Even further away than me."

"Where are _you_ from?" she asked with wide, curious eyes.

"A country called Germany," he told her.

"Is it very far away? Do you miss it? What's it like there?" Katie asked, bouncing slightly.

"I can tell you all about it if you'd like, but I think Jubilee is about to show you something very pretty," Kurt said with a smile.

She nodded happily. "Okay. But then I want to hear about where you're from," she said as she gingerly took the fireflies back from him and set them in the grass beside her. "I love stories. I like to listen to them."

Jubilee waited until Katie was looking her way before she broke into a wide smile. "You remember what you asked me in the pool? About what I can do?"

"Mmhmm," Katie said, nodding. "Are you gonna show off your superpowers?"

Jubilee smiled and raised one finger to shoot off a few tiny sparkles of light. When Katie smiled wider, she started her little show in earnest, firing large plasmoids into the air that fizzled, popped, and screamed as they erupted into showers of colored sparkles, some that changed color mid air. When she was all done, she just turned to look at Katie and see what her tiny self had to say about it.

Katie broke into little squeals of laughter and clapped very loudly. "That was very, very pretty!" she told Jubilee. "And very loud," she added, and Jubilee noticed that she was half tucked into Kurt's side, though still grinning.

"Just like Jubilee," Logan said with a laugh.

"Well, good. That means her superpower matches," Katie said matter-of-factly. She yawned and rubbed at her eyes tiredly. "I want a superpower," she told Kurt.

"Maybe you'll get one someday," Kurt told her. "Most of us didn't get ours until we were bigger than you."

"If I get one, can I be an X-Man when I grow up?" she asked brightly.

"I think you might just be able to be an X-Man even if you don't get one," Kurt told her with a smile he couldn't quite stop.

Katie beamed at him and then called over to Logan, "Did you hear that, Mr. Logan? I'm gonna be a superhero!"

"You'll be really good at it too, I'm sure," Logan told her as Jubilee plopped down next to him and shoved a stick with a marshmallow on it in his hands.

"You want something sweet, Katie?" Kurt asked with a smile when he saw Jubilee going through placing marshmallows on sticks and divvying them out. "Jubilee is making s'mores."

"I like sweets," Katie agreed. "I've never had s'mores though. Are they yummy?"

"Very," Kurt said with a nod. "And messy."

She giggled. "Mr. Logan makes funny faces when I get messy," she told him, her eyes wide as she shared this little secret with him.

"Then make sure you climb up in his lap once you're done with your s'more."

She giggled again and nodded. "He'll make very funny faces."

"He will," Kurt agreed as Logan just gave him a bit of a dirty look for that one.

Katie settled in to watch as Jubilee showed her how to make s'mores and giggled with delight as some of the bamfs joined her to watch the process and then proceed to try and make their own — usually with incredibly charred results, which they still ate happily.

Kurt and Logan took at least three times as long just to make the marshmallows, but it was pretty obvious why Jubilee had given Logan a stick at all when she simply took his marshmallow and ate it herself, to Katie's obvious delight.

Katie, as expected, was a chocolatey, marshmallowy mess and was slightly hyper after the s'mores, and she climbed up in Logan's lap and told him to stay put, because Mr. Nightcrawler was going to tell stories about faraway places.

"Are you done with the sugar for the night?" Logan asked the bouncing little girl.

Katie giggled. "Mr. Nightcrawler said I could only have two s'mores," she said seriously.

"But he didn't say you couldn't have just a toasted marshmallow," Jubilee said. "And Logan makes the best marshmallows."

Katie turned to Logan with wide eyes and didn't do anything except to say, in a high-pitched little voice, " _Pleeeease_?"

Jubilee had already put a marshmallow on the stick, and Katie had certainly managed to get him half covered in her sticky mess, so he just wrapped one arm around her and scooted just a bit closer to the fire to fix up her marshmallow.

"Ooh, be careful," she warned him, staring at the fire. "You're not supposed to get too close."

"I've done this for a long time," he promised. "Don't worry."

She giggled and nodded, then wrapped her arms around his neck to give him a little hug while he was roasting. "You're my favorite, Mr. Logan," she told him seriously. "I never ever want another guardbody ever."

He gave her a squeeze until she decided to let go. "I'll stick around for you," he promised.

She beamed happily at him and then settled in to wait for her marshmallow treat while Kurt told her about Germany and she bombarded him with questions about anything she could think of - including whether or not there were mosquitos in Germany, because "I don't like them, and I want to live somewhere they aren't."

"Go walk through the smoke, darlin'," Logan suggested. "They'll leave you alone if you're smoky."

"Really?" Katie jumped to her feet and spun around to look at herself before she looked back up at Logan. "Okay." With that, she ran off, giggling, to spin around where the wind was blowing the smoke, coming back slightly coughing but grinning ear to ear. "I got some in my nose," she told him.

"That happens sometimes," he said quietly "But you tell me the next time you get bitten, alright? Pay attention to it."

She scrunched up her face in concentration. "Okay," she said, nodding seriously and just waiting to get bitten again, watching her arms with a look of anticipation before she got bored again and started humming to herself. She climbed back into Logan's lap after a while and just grinned sleepily up at him. "No more skeeters," she said with a giggle.

He nodded down at her as she got comfortable, just listening halfway to the stories that Jubilee was telling Noh about Beverly Hills. It wasn't long before she had fallen asleep on him again, one little hand curled in his shirt for support as she was just plain tuckered out.

As the fire died down, Peter made his way over to grin at Logan. "You gonna need some help getting unstuck in the morning? I've got a little experience with sticky traps," he teased.

"I might need help getting my foot unstuck from your ass if you don't knock it off," Logan rumbled.

Peter just grinned at him, keeping enough of a distance that Logan couldn't reach him without disturbing Katie. "You shouldn't use language like that around little ears," he said with a 'tut tut' at the end and a shake of his head.

"You shouldn't make jokes that you know I'm gonna come after you for later," Logan said quietly.

Peter just grinned at him. "Hey, I came to offer my assistance, my sticky friend," he said.

"Yeah? See if you can take her," Logan offered. "Since you wanna help."

Peter hedged, looking at the sleeping little girl. "I dunno. She looks pretty comfortable. I don't want to wake her up."

"Chicken," Logan accused. "Scared of a little girl? Worst that happens is she grabs on again."

"Hey, I'm not the Chicken Hawk. You're clearly confused," Peter said, waggling his finger in Logan's direction.

"Still afraid of a four-year-old."

"Four and a half," Peter defended as he pulled a face at him and then looked Katie over carefully. "If she wakes up, _you_ are dealing with the temper tantrum," he decided at last.

"Pretty sure that's the established deal," Logan said easily.

Peter crouched down next to Logan and Katie and very, very carefully tried to get his arms underneath her, but she let out a little whine and grabbed on tighter to Logan, just snuggling into his shirt as Peter took a step back and held up both hands. "Sorry, Logan, but I think you're stuck with this one. Literally, too."

Logan nodded and shifted Katie's weight to stand up. "I don't mind sleeping on the ground - but I'm not doing it covered in sugar."

"Yeah, wouldn't want to track ants in the house," Peter agreed, nodding as he seemed to do a quick check of the grass in the surrounding area to see if the bug trail had already started or not.

When Logan got to his feet, Katie picked her head up for a second, long enough to look around and then wrap her arms around his neck and bury her face in his shoulder as he got moving forward. "Grab her bugs or she'll get mad," he said quietly Kurt's way before he started walking toward the house in the dark.

Kurt just nodded and grabbed the little jar of fireflies and teleported them to her room, so there would be a nightlight waiting for them when they arrived.

When they finally did get there, she wasn't as knocked out as she'd been when he just let her sleep on him, but she let him put her in bed this time. "If you want me, I'm right next door," Logan told her quietly.

"Promise?" she asked through her blankets.

"Yep," he said with a nod. "They put you in this room just so I'd be easy for you to find." She smiled at that and just snuggled deeper under the covers.

Logan watched her for just a minute. "I'll be right back," he told her before he slipped out to retrieve the purple and blue striped tiger that the older Kate had given him as a joke. He didn't even ask before he just pressed it under her chin, and she reached out to snuggle into it quickly.


	4. Aww, Katie, No!

**Notes: See, now I want fanart of Dr. McCoy in a "Dr. Fuzzy" tee shirt. Someone get on this, stat. We're so glad that the ridiculous overload of ADORABLE that is this particular volume of our 714 universe is continuing to entertain. It is literally nothing but a ball of sunshiney goodness. You know. Except for the whole… superheroes in danger part ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: "Aww, Katie No!"**

The next morning at breakfast, Katie was in her little purple pajamas and sharing her Froot Loops with the bamfs when Clint arrived at the mansion to check on how things were going.

"How's tricks, Katie Kate?" he asked when he walked in, and she looked up at him with a smile as she handed a bamf another sticky handful of cereal.

"I'm not named Katie Kate," she told him seriously. "You have to _pick_ one."

He just laughed at that and set down a little purple bow with suction cup arrows in front of her with a small sort of flourish. "Brought you a present, Katie Kate," he said with a little smirk, and she looked at the bow with a scrunched up nose.

"I like sweets better," she said finally. "I'm a dancer. I need _lots_ and _lots_ of energy. Susie said that food's what gives you energy. She told me that last week," she explained with a wide smile.

Clint didn't know exactly how to react to that, so he just took a handful of her cereal from the box and took a seat. "You're right," he said as he popped a few into his mouth.

She looked him over and giggled. "You're too big to eat cereal like that," she told him, and his smile only widened.

"Katie," he said seriously, "you are _never_ too big to eat whatever cereal you want however you want to eat it." She just giggled at him but allowed him to share her food for a while until some of the other X-Men started to trickle in and say their good mornings to the two Hawkeyes — and, of course, to the 'guardbody' seated at the far end of the table.

"I see Clint brought you a bow," Storm said with a smile as she sat down across from Katie.

"Yeah, I don't know why," Katie said, shrugging up to her ears. "I'm in _ballet_ class, not archery. Duh." She shook her head disbelievingly at Clint, who just grinned back at her.

"If you're missing ballet class, I'm sure Kitty would be happy to dance with you," Storm offered with a little smile. "She is supposed to get here soon, and she's an excellent dancer."

Katie nodded excitedly. "Yes, please! I don't want to forget all the things I learned!" She jumped down from her chair to demonstrate what she probably thought was a very graceful twirl for Storm, who just looked delighted. "I'm gonna be really good at it someday. I'll put on lots of shows, and I'll have my own special box where Mom and Dad can watch!"

"I'm sure you will amaze the world no matter what you choose to do," Storm agreed, nodding along as she just couldn't stop smiling at the excited little girl in front of her.

"That's right!" Katie laughed before she climbed back into her chair and went back to swinging her legs happily and eating her Froot Loops.

"Hey, speaking of shows, Katie Kate," Clint said with a sideways grin. "What do you say we go to the movies today? I bet there's lots of stuff you haven't seen."

Katie looked at him for a long moment and pouted. "I can't go to the movies with an Avenger," she told him very seriously. "I'm not supposed to go anywhere with anybody by myself unless Mr. Logan comes or says it's okay."

"If you wanna go, we can go," Logan told her without looking up from his newspaper that he was reading. "Nothing major planned today just waiting for Illyana and Strange."

"Can we buy popcorn too?" Katie asked excitedly, clearly over the moon at the prospect of a movie outing with them.

"And Milk Duds you can throw at Hawkeye," he allowed, tipping his head Clint's way, though Clint didn't argue the point, halfway interested to see just how good Katie's aim was even at this age.

She scrunched up her nose in confusion at that. "I thought Hawkeye was a _girl_!"

"The good one is," Logan answered without a beat.

"Ha ha." Clint shot him a look and then shook his head. "C'mon, Katie. Let's see what movies are out, and you can pick one that you think sounds good."

She regarded him carefully. "No scary movies," she said, shaking her finger at him. "I don't like scary movies."

"No scary movies," Clint agreed, grinning.

It took a while to get Katie ready to go to the movies, because once Kurt — who had apparently perfected the art of chasing her down and getting her clean — finished eating breakfast and chatting with Storm, he had to wipe off Katie's sticky hands and face from the morning meal, and then she wanted Jubilee to do her hair again, so by the time she was ready to go, Clint had been catching up on all the good Katie stories with Peter as she came tumbling down the stairs in her new jeans, purple shirt, and her hair in pigtails.

"Okay, I'm ready!" she announced as she jumped over the last step and put both hands up in a little gymnastics salute that Jubilee had probably taught her.

"Yes, you are," Clint agreed, grinning as Katie skipped over to take Logan's hand.

Katie had, of course, picked out the latest Disney movie to watch, and she was just as much fun to watch as the last time they watched a movie as she gasped, giggled, and flat out hid her face in Logan's shirt at anything remotely scary, but of course, she had the time of her life throwing Milk Duds at Clint with Logan during the opening trailers and the closing credits, and she was working up a serious sugar high by the time they got out of the theater, humming along to the songs from the movie as well as she could remember them — which was only one line here or there over and over again.

She made them wait for her outside the bathrooms and emerged with water all over her front as she hadn't quite been able to reach the sink, but she just beamed at both of them and skipped ahead, still humming.

She got a bit further ahead of her 'guardbody' and his Avenger friend as she skipped along — and very nearly ran into a couple of men wearing biking helmets and tracksuits. "Sorry!" she called out quickly with a little apologetic smile up at the men. "Sorry I ran into you almost."

The pair of them glanced at each other for just a second before one of them simply scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder, and it only took a few seconds before she got over the surprise and started to _scream_ , beating little fists against him and kicking and shouting to be _put down_.

As soon as Logan heard her scream, he stopped dead in his tracks and just scanned the crowd for half a second before he spotted the men in tracksuits — far ahead of Logan and Clint, and rushing off with Katie panicking in one of the guys' arm as they met up with several more of the same tracksuited creeps. He didn't bother telling Clint anything before he just broke into a barrelling run, and when he got close enough, he didn't think the guy carrying off Katie had earned a warning. Katie, however—

"Close your eyes, Katie!" Logan shouted, and to his shock, she did just before he popped his claws and jammed them into the first guy's back. He snatched Katie up and did the same to the man that had just been holding her before the first body hit the ground.

Clint had finally caught up, and Logan turned in just enough time to crouch down to level with Katie while the archer fired off arrows to keep the creeps back from them for a moment. "Can you go with Clint for just a minute while I handle these guys?" Logan asked her.

Katie was sniffling and crying but nodding just the same as Clint came skidding to a stop and picked her up as soon as Logan looked his way with a nod. Katie buried her little face in Clint's shoulder, and he just held her there, tightly, to keep her from seeing any more of the fight as Logan, satisfied Katie was safe with Clint, amped up his attack on the guys who thought it was a good idea to try and kidnap her.

When Logan turned back around, one of the tracksuits had a baseball bat and had already arced a pretty good swing — but the crack that echoed the square was not Logan. A sharp-sounding _snikt_ rang in the air, and he dove into the group of them swinging and slicing with a deep growl. He didn't waste any movements, and in under a couple of minutes the whole thing was done with what Clint was sure amounted to a lot less blood loss than what was normal for Logan.

Logan turned Clint's way and slipped his flannel off to try and wipe off the blood on his arms and hands before he threw it into a garbage can and returned to the two of them. "Let's get her back to safety," Logan half growled out.

Clint just nodded quickly, holding onto Katie, who was taking little hitched breaths and still hiding in his shoulder as she couldn't stop crying. "Mansion's safer than my place," Clint agreed quietly over her shoulder. "Especially if the tracksuits're here."

"They're not anymore," Logan promised. "That's all that came. No other scents that smelled anything like rotten borscht."

Clint nodded and tried to soothe Katie, who was still clutching onto his shirt. "Hear that, Katie? No more bad guys," he said, rubbing her back and just trying to comfort her.

She kept her face well hidden in Clint's shoulder but didn't seem to be able to say anything except to just sort of cry miserably.

"It's okay, Katie," Logan promised. "He won't scare you again."

She finally picked her head up to look at Logan and just held her hands out for him. "I wanna go home," she told him through her tears.

He took her from Clint and just snuggled into her as best he was able while they were still moving out. "I know, kiddo, I know. But it's not safe just yet. Avengers and X-men are working on it."

She held him in a tight hug. "I don't _want_ Avengers," she sniffed. "I just wanna go _home_."

"We're workin' on it, I promise. We'll get you home as fast as we can," Logan told her. "But you have to be safe. I couldn't live with it if you got hurt."

She sniffled and picked her head up to look at him a little better, eyes still shining. "You stopped all those bad guys," she said in a quiet voice filled with awe.

"Yeah, I had to," he agreed. "But there are a lot more, and worse bad guys than that."

"Are you gonna fight them too?" she asked, her nose scrunched up.

"That's what I do," he told her.

"And you're the best at it," she said helpfully with a tiny smile that had Clint chuckling.

"I sure am," Logan agreed with a little smirk.

"Is it alright if we take you back to the mansion where all the X-Men are, Katie?" Clint asked carefully. "They're very good at fighting bad guys too."

Katie had to think about it for a long time before, at last, she nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. Mr. Logan said that. He said Mr. Nightcrawler was the best good guy ever."

"He's my favorite X-Man," Logan told her.

"Then he's _my_ favorite X-Man too," Katie said matter-of-factly as she wiped her nose with the sleeve of her shirt. She glanced between the two men and got a determined sort of look on her face. "Okay. We can go to the mansion, _I guess_. But _home_ later, alright?"

"Home as soon as I can make it happen," Logan corrected her.

"That could be a long time," Katie said with a sigh as she shook her head.

"I hope not," he told her honestly before he just leaned forward a bit to catch her gaze. "But I really don't like bad guys that mess with little girls. It makes me growly."

She let out the smallest of giggles and nodded at that. "Yeah. I heard. You make funny noises."

"He's a funny guy," Clint agreed, smirking Logan's way. "C'mon, Katie. I'll drive us back to the mansion. And then you can tell Mr. Nightcrawler all about the funny noises Mr. Logan makes." He was clearly enjoying himself as he shot a wide grin Logan's way.

"Better than the funny smells coming off of Hawkeye," Logan muttered to Katie. "I think he needs a shower."

She giggled. "Doesn't he know you have to wash behind your ears and use _soap_?" she asked. "Everybody knows that!"

"He just doesn't have anyone to remind him to clean up after he spills half his food on himself," Logan told her.

"I've got Jess," Clint defended before he added Kate's way. "And I use tippy cups. You ever think about using those, Katie Kate? I bet you'd spill less that way."

She scrunched up her nose. "Tippy cups are for _babies_ ," she said. "I'm four _and a half_ years old now. I can do it by myself!"

Clint just laughed and shrugged at Logan as they finally reached where Clint had parked. "Well, I tried."

"Work on yourself first, Barton," Logan said gruffly. "Kid's ahead of you already."

"Typical," Clint said easily as he slid into the driver's seat of the car. "You know one of these days she's gonna be a better shot too, and then what will I have but the dog?" he laughed.

"You'll have your building. Maybe."

Clint narrowed his eyes for a moment at that and looked behind him at Katie, who was starting to calm down and play with some of the toys they had brought for the drive down, before he looked back at Logan. "Didn't know they were following me, and I _definitely_ didn't know they would come after Katie, or I'd never have brought her out here," Clint said seriously and in a low enough tone that he was fairly sure Katie couldn't hear him.

"Probably shoulda interrogated, but ... I kinda lost my temper," Logan admitted.

"For good reason." Clint looked in the rearview mirror at the little girl stretched out with all her toys. "'S okay. I'll figure it out on my own. Just — don't take any road trips with her 'til we get this sorted."

"Scent's all over your car," Logan told him. "On the outside anyhow."

"That doesn't surprise me." Clint patted the dashboard affectionately. "Believe it or not, this little beauty? Bought her from the head tracksuit's ex."

Logan raised an eyebrow and turned to face Clint a little better. "What? You tryin' to piss 'em off on purpose?"

"Yes? And no — I didn't _know_ it was his when I bought it," Clint said. "But it's mine now, and so's the building, so they can just shove it."

"Well, if they don't back off — let me know. I could use a good stretch."

"Why don't you just send Katie my way when she's back to her old self? I figure she'd like to teach them a lesson or two in manners," Clint said with a smirk.

"I'm sure she'll insist on it," Logan agreed, though he couldn't help but add with a little smirk, "But my lessons are pretty permanent."

Clint just nodded thoughtfully and then shrugged. "I'll have Jess run through the building, see if the tracksuits bugged anything while I was gone yesterday with some SHIELD stuff," he said. "Go from there, you know?" He looked back at Katie and shrugged again.

"Noh's been upgrading our security, so she'll be fine," Logan told him. "Stark got ticked when he couldn't call in directly the other day with his security so _lax,_ according to Noh _._ "

"Stark's just mad you guys're getting more toys and he's not," Clint teased easily. "He'll get over it."

"You should see the new Blackbird. It's coming together faster now."

"Yeah?" Clint glanced over at him with a grin. "I'd like to see that before I go back to the building. Katie — or, well, Kate — was telling me about the upgrades before — you know — this whole thing."

"Yeah, well. It's not upgrades anymore," Logan told him. "After the thing blew up, they've been going nuts with the wish list. To listen to Forge and Noh, you'd think the two of 'em are mind-linked half the damn time. Finishing each other's sentences."

Clint just grinned at that. "You guys better watch out, or next thing you know, those two will run off with the whole place and you won't be able to go anywhere without some new invention or security measure stopping you. At least, that's how it was when Stark went on a frenzy."

"Yeah, I remember the security measures he had in place. You remember why it stopped, right?"

Clint just grinned. "Officially, I have no memory of that, no," he said seriously.

"Unofficially, Fury paid me off for my part."

"I got a nice vacation package," Clint said with a smirk. "But you did more — so you get paid."

"I only accepted cash," he said with a nod.

Clint just grinned back at him and snorted as the little girl in the backseat started to sing Disney songs to herself.

"Sure you're a dancer and not a singer, sweetheart?" Clint called back to her, and she giggled delightedly.

"I can do both!" she told him cheerfully.

"Of course you can," Clint replied, shaking his head as Katie went back to humming, apparently acting out several of the songs with her toys.

Katie was starting to fade by the time they reached the mansion, and so Clint and Logan shared a look before Clint just started to circle the grounds in his car, driving around until Katie just dropped off to sleep in the backseat, curled up and cuddled with her toys.

When they pulled into the garage, Clint quickly stepped around to pull Katie out of the back, looking half afraid that he might drop her or wake her as he did so. But she didn't wake up at all, just kept right on looking completely zonked out, exhausted from all the excitement and from her near-miss kidnapping.

Logan led the two of them to Katie's temporary room and had to smirk when Clint was incredibly careful about tucking her in and making sure that she had her little teddy bear.

"If she wasn't already out, I'd have you read her a story," Logan teased.

Clint looked up and just made a face. "Yeah, don't push your luck, Wolverine."

"Pushing. See, because now it has to happen." Logan smirked. "So Jubes can doc-u-ment it."

Clint chuckled quietly. "Hey now. I've been reliably warned about Jubes and her crusade."

"Yeah? Who warned you?"

"Heard it from Spidey," he said with a little smirk.

Logan leaned forward. "He's just scared he's next in line for the picking. She hasn't really hit him yet."

"The way he tells it, that's because he's been very careful about not letting her snap any pictures."

"Then he'd be surprised at what she's gotten on him so far."

"I'm going to need those pictures. You know that, right? I need them for ... reasons. Important, not-teasing reasons."

"Knowin' Jubes, when she's ready to share, everyone will have them for any damn reason they want." He led the way out of Katie's room and didn't quite close the door. "But the one of him in his Avenger's PJ's? That's just gold."

Clint chuckled. "And that one didn't even need weird magic to make happen." The two of them made their way back downstairs, and Clint rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry the day trip turned out so lousy. My fault," he said.

Logan just punched him in the arm. "Not your fault. That stuff happens every time I step outta the door so just — knock it off."

Clint just grinned and shrugged up to his ears. "Tracksuits're my problem. Anyway ... I'll figure out how they found out about Katie and let you know. Seemed like they went right for her."

"Yeah," Logan agreed quietly. "When you find out — I wanna pay 'em a visit for thinkin' it's okay to pull a kid into this."

"I'll send you an address and an invite," Clint promised. "We'll even bring Katie if she's old enough."

"You know, she's probably gonna switch back right about the time we're starting to enjoy her," Logan said, shaking his head a bit to himself. "Then it's gonna be like meeting the little one all over again. With the screaming and hissy fits."

"Yeah, well, that's how magic goes," Clint chuckled. "Hate it."

"You and me both," Logan agreed as the two of them reached the bottom of the stairs.

"You need anything for Katie, just call me up, huh?" Clint said.

"Everyone's tripping over themselves to spoil her rotten," Logan told him. "Everyone. But if someone misses something — you got it. She was your find after all."

"She found us," Clint corrected him with a smirk.

"True story."

With that, Clint gave Logan a two-fingered salute and headed back out to go figure out how the tracksuits had followed them, which finally, mercifully, meant Logan was alone for the first time since Katie woke up small.


	5. Strange Magic

**Notes: And unattended children will be given big, giant, hug magnets. (CC says no they will not but we all know that's not true.)**

 **Alrighty then! Let's see what happens when we get Katie all sugared up. Again. (These X-Men are marshmallows around small children. Absolutely useless.)**

* * *

 **Chapter 5:"Strange Magic"**

With Katie sound asleep and with the promise of some time to himself, Logan let out a sigh and just took a moment to listen to the bustle of the mansion before he very quietly headed first to the fridge for a beer — and then to the garage to wrench on his bike for a little bit. It always helped him to think when he couldn't take the time to just go for a ride, and this — he knew he didn't have time to take off for a few hours.

It was there that Kurt found him, to ask with a smile how the movie had gone. But when Logan just gave him a _look_ from the other side of the bike and kept right on working, Kurt frowned deeply.

"What happened?" he asked as he pulled up a crawler seat to sit across from his friend.

"Some creeps after Clint tried to snatch Katie," Logan said bluntly as he paused for just a moment in the middle of the oil change.

"Is she alright?" Kurt asked quickly, his eyes wide as he almost immediately jumped into alarm mode

"She's fine," Logan assured him, watching the oil catch in the pan. "She just — she got scared, but she was singing in the car on the way back and she's taking a nap right now, so I think she's alright."

Kurt watched Logan for a moment and sighed. "Well," he said at last with a bit of a sigh and an attempt at a smile. "She did have her guardbody with her."

"She spent all of about two minutes hiding in Clint's shoulder while I took care of the creeps."

"Did she see anything?" Kurt asked, a frown creeping into his expression at the thought.

"I don't think so," Logan said. "I told her to close her eyes before I hit the first one — and I'm pretty sure she did." He looked up at Kurt and let out a heavy sigh. "You know I always do that if there's a little one around."

"I admit, I'm surprised she listened," Kurt said, though he sounded relieved.

"She was scared," Logan told him. "Scared kids will listen quicker if they think you can help them."

Kurt's tail was switching behind him as he thought it over. "You said they were after Clint," he said, almost hopefully.

"Yeah, they were Clint's creeps - but they went right for her," Logan told him, smearing new oil on the filter before he put it on the bike, again half distracted as he tried to just — tinker.

Kurt looked irritated at the thought, his tail now suddenly still. "She shouldn't leave the mansion while she's like this," he said quietly.

"Not until we figure out how they found her, no," Logan agreed before he wiped his hands off and leaned forward onto the bike. "She's asking to go home again. And I put her off again. But that's not gonna work forever. Sooner or later, she's gonna get mad at me for telling her no on the one thing she wants."

"I wish we had something better to tell her," Kurt said with a sigh. He shook his head and then gave Logan a tight smile. "Well. Ilyanna and Doctor Strange are arriving in a few hours. Maybe we won't have to come up with anything at all."

"Maybe," Logan agreed. "I don't like lying to kids."

"If this goes on, she'll have to know the truth sooner or later," Kurt pointed out. "If only to make sure she stays in the mansion — and stays safe."

"I don't think you realize who you're dealing with here, Elf," Logan said frankly. "Same stubborn girl — just a lot smaller package. She won't go along with that, and you know it."

"I know," Kurt agreed with a long sigh. He shook his head and passed a hand through his curls. "It was easier to keep from worrying overmuch when I knew she could handle herself — but this one seems to get into all the same trouble with none of the training."

"So ... probably like before she started training herself up then," Logan said with a smirk.

"Perhaps," Kurt allowed. "I didn't know her then, but give it a few years…"

"I'd rather just get her back," Logan said with a little chuckle. "I've had about enough of the 'Mr. Logan' nonsense."

"I don't know," Kurt said with a widening grin as, despite everything, he simply could not pass up the chance to tease his best friend. "I think it suits you."

"Don't start," he warned.

"I'm trying to enjoy myself," Kurt said with a light shrug, though the smirk Logan's way died for a moment as he added, "despite the desire to run down whoever did this to her and run him through to _get her back_."

"Enjoy yourself what? Watching me try and play surrogate dad to your girlfriend? Should I start calling you 'son' and threatening your ability to walk?"

"Enjoying myself watching our entire team become completely helpless in the hands of a little girl," Kurt said, his smile returning for a moment. "Can you imagine how much more helpless the team will be when Scott brings his family down here?"

"We're getting good practice with Katie," Logan said with a smirk. "Hopefully she's back to herself by the time they get here. If not — well. She'll have friends close to her own age, I suppose."

"I sincerely hope it doesn't last that long," Kurt said, shaking his head at the thought. "I prefer Kate to Katie infinitely more, even if I am _trying_ to find something to enjoy to ease the worry."

"Slim said he'd be here this weekend," Logan told him. "Apparently Storm told Annie that there was a mandatory teacher meeting. But — last I heard it was just the cook out. She is _lying_ to that woman."

"I'm not opposed to a mandatory cook out by the pool," Kurt said with a smirk.

"Good. Because you _have_ to be there. Or face the wrath of Storm."

"I'd prefer if Kate were there as well," Kurt said, nodding. " _Our_ Kate."

"Yeah, gonna be hard for her to teach archery the way she's turning her nose up at her bow."

"She told me last night that she is a ballerina," Kurt said with a little smile.

"Yeah, and Kitty promised to take her to the studio later if she's still —you know. Tiny." Logan couldn't help but smile a bit to himself. "I can't help but think the only reason she put her off and hasn't taken her already is to get her a purple tutu."

"Knowing her? That's exactly what's taking so long," Kurt agreed, laughing. "And knowing Katie, we will never get her to stop wearing it."

"Better text Kitty and tell her to pick up two."

"Good point," Kurt agreed with a smile as Logan finally finished on his bike and the two started to head in together. "She'll have peanut butter all over the first by lunchtime tomorrow."

The two friends made their way back inside, only to find that Katie was awake again and playing with Gambit, giggling delightedly every time he blew up a card for her. She waved when she saw Logan and Kurt but didn't ask to get down from the counter, where she was happily munching on some fruit snacks while Gambit played with her.

"You like the crazy Cajun?" Logan asked as he washed the grease and dirt off his hands.

"I like explosions," she giggled, watching the grease drip into the sink with wide eyes. "How come you're all messy?"

"I was working on my motorcycle," he told her. "It's a messy job."

"Do you need a bath?" she asked. "I can turn on the water for you."

Logan gave her a crooked little smile as he shook his head. "No, I'm not quite that messy yet. Just my hands."

"Okay." She popped another fruit snack in her mouth and giggled when Remy blew up another card. "Have you met Gamble? He's funny."

"I have. I call him Gumbo," Logan told her.

"Why?"

"Because it's about all he knows how to cook."

"Why?"

"You'd have to ask him, darlin'," Logan told her as he dried his hands off and leaned on the counter next to her.

She nodded thoughtfully, kicking her feet again. "Gamble, how come you can only cook one thing?" she asked earnestly.

"I can cook more'n dat," Remy replied with a frown Logan's way. "He jus' like to pick on people."

"Okay." Katie grinned brightly at both of them in turn before she announced, "It's good to know lots of things. I can make peanut butter _and_ ham sandwiches."

"Dat's already more'n Bobby know how to do," Gambit told her with a little twinkle in his eyes. "All he know how to do is wreck macaroni an' cheese."

Kate giggled and turned up her nose. "I don't like macaroni and cheese," she told Gambit. "I like sandwiches."

"You like pizza?" Gambit asked with a little smile.

She nodded. "I like pepperoni."

Gambit leaned in with a little crooked smile. "Then we gon' order pepperoni tonight, 'cause it's Bobby's turn to go an' wreck macaroni."

She giggled. "How come you let him do that if nobody wants to eat it?"

"He ain't never gonna learn if he don't keep tryin'."

She beamed at him. "That's what my ballet teacher says," she told him, nodding wisely. "She says you have to keep trying even if you fall down a lot." She held her hands out to him. "I want to get down now, please."

He smiled back at her and picked her up just to toss her in the air then set her on the ground gently. "What go up mus' come down. So why not go up first?"

She laughed delightedly and hugged Gambit around the knees once he'd set her down. "I like that. That's a good thing to say," she told his knees before she finally let him go and looked over at Logan. "Is your bike all fixed now?"

"Yep, had to change the oil," he told her.

"What did you change it to?"

"Prettier oil."

"Purple stuff?" she asked brightly.

"Nope — purple's in the transmission. Oil is kind of yellow."

She nodded as she thought it over. "Yellow like Jubes?"

"Close," he agreed. "But the bike is red with a lot of silver."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "That sounds like a _boy_ bike."

"Well, I am a boy," he agreed. "Maybe when you're bigger, I'll get you a purple one."

She ran over to grin up at him and nod several times, excitedly. "I have a trike at home," she told him. "I haven't ridden it yet, but I'm gonna learn how."

"You'll figure it out really fast, I'm sure," he said with a little smirk.

"Mine is still at home," she told him, still grinning. "It's pink, but that's okay, even if it's _Susie's_ favorite color, not mine. But that's okay. Pink is close to purple. I can show you my pink trike when we get home, though!"

"You better," he agreed with a little smirk before he crouched down a bit beside her. "You want to see the boy bike?"

She nodded and giggled again as she grabbed his hand. "Please!"

Logan glanced up at Kurt and Gambit, who were both just watching the whole interaction with little smiles, before he led Katie to the garage and pointed the motorcycle out to her. "That's it. Just a little bigger than your trike."

"A little _lot_ bigger," Katie said with wide eyes as she looked it over. She giggled. "It's very pretty ... for a boy bike."

"Not all boy bikes are ugly," he told her.

"Some of my dad's friends have bikes, but they're all big and black and they make funny noises," she told him, still staring at the motorcycle with a grin.

"This one is loud," he told her. "And it kind of rumbles. If you're feeling brave later, I can take you for a little ride."

"Pretty please!" she said, nodding several times. "I'll be really, really good!"

"We'll have Nightcrawler find you some earplugs, then I'll take you for a little ride."

She nodded thoughtfully. "Mr. Nightcrawler is really good at finding things."

"He sure is," Logan said with a little nod. "And when he can't find them - he has his cousins help."

"They're silly," Katie giggled.

"They are," he agreed before he turned her back toward the door inside. "Let's tell him we need some earplugs for you."

She nodded and skipped along ahead of him, humming to herself again as she did so. "Mr. Nightcrawler, guess what!" she called out as soon as she saw Kurt. "I get to ride the shiny boy bike with Mr. Logan!"

Kurt looked down at Katie with a smile before he shot Logan a look over her head. "Oh, really? When did this happen?"

"Hasn't yet. We'll stay on the grounds, Elf," Logan assured him. "And she needs earplugs before we go." He had to stop and shoot his friend a smirk as he added, "You can run alongside if you're nervous."

"Don't worry, Mr. Nightcrawler. My guardbody won't let me get hurt," Katie promised earnestly. "He's really, really good at that, aren't you, Mr. Logan?"

"I try," Logan replied easily.

Katie beamed at him and then looked back at Kurt. "He was really mad when those bad guys came after the movies," she told him seriously.

"Was he now?" Kurt asked, glancing Logan's way before he crouched down to look up at her. "What happened? It sounds like you have a good story to tell."

"It was _really_ scary," Katie said with relish, leaning toward Kurt with wide eyes. "These guys in silly costumes picked me up! And I tried to hit them, but I'm not as good at hitting people as Mr. Logan is, because I'm not very big yet," she explained seriously. "And then Mr. Logan came out of _nowhere_ and told me to close my eyes, so I did, because Daddy says to always listen to guardbodies when I'm scared." She looked a little bit sheepish as she paused. "I was really, really scared," she added.

"And are you scared now?" Kurt asked gently.

She shook her head. "Not anymore," she said. "Mr. Logan got rid of all the bad guys, and he says it's safe in the mansion until the Avengers get rid of the bad guys at my house."

She didn't see Logan shrug Kurt's way, but Kurt had to shake his head and let out a sigh. "Those sound like some very dangerous bad guys."

"Don't worry, Mr. Nightcrawler. They won't stay for long. Not with my Dad and the Avengers there!" she promised brightly.

"Let's hope they get it fixed up quickly then," Kurt said, though it was clear to Logan from the tone of his voice what he _really_ wanted fixed — fast. He took a deep breath and smiled Katie's way. "Until then, we should try to just have some fun, _ja_?"

She nodded and giggled. "That's why we need earplugs. We're going to go on a bike ride!" she told him.

"Then I shall get them for you right away," he promised before he booped her on the nose and disappeared in a poof of smoke. It took him almost no time to return with a pair of earplugs for her. "Enjoy your ride."

She beamed at him. "Thank you very much," she said in her 'grown-up' voice before she broke into a giggle and hugged him. "Maybe Mr. Logan will let you ride next time!"

"I've ridden with him on the road," Kurt told her with quiet smile. "You'll have more fun like this though."

She nodded and waved at him. "Thank you for the earplugs!" she called out as she took Logan's hand. "When we get back, I'll tell you all about it!"

As it turned out, Katie was a little nervous once Logan started the bike up and revved it up a little bit. It rumbled and shook — and she grabbed onto the gas cap in front of her as he put it into gear and crawled out of the garage with her in front of him. Once they got moving a little bit, though — with the breeze blowing and the noise kind of muffled now that they were out of the garage — she relaxed a little bit and just giggled when he turned the bike off the driveway and just drove down the fenceline through the grass.

They tooled around for a while, just puttering through the grounds, and eventually, she was asking him to not only rev up the bike more but to go faster. By the time they got back to the garage, it was almost dinnertime, and it was starting to rain just a little bit. "Go wash up," Logan told her. "And tell Mr. Nightcrawler about your motorcycle ride."

She nodded and toddled off, still giggling slightly, and he knew as soon as she'd found Kurt because of her loud retelling of the whole thing — complete with little motorcycle noises to illustrate the point. The storytelling continued throughout the pepperoni pizza dinner as she decided that not only Kurt but everybody needed to know the story of all the adventures she'd had that day — both at the movies and on the bike. So by the time dinner was over, she had talked herself out and was content to just sit down and actually eat the last two slices of pizza that they'd been trying to get her to eat while she ignored them in favor of storytelling.

She was sitting in Storm's lap and perfectly happy when the doorbell rang, and Doctor Strange and Ilyanna finally made their appearance, stepping in from the gathering summer storm.

The group as a whole greeted Ilyanna warmly and she made her rounds hugging all of them and grinning broadly as she did so, but there were only a few that were warm with Strange — the extent of that, however, was a few simple handshakes.

After Logan filled in the two of them very quietly and very quickly, Ilyanna slipped away from him to come over to Katie and Storm and say hello while Strange tried to get details from Logan.

"Hello," Ilyanna said brightly after she'd crouched down. "I'm a friend of Logan's. Are you having some fun here?"

Kate nodded shyly but curled in a little tighter to Storm, all but hiding behind her.

Ilyana stood up with a smile and moved on to share a moment with her brother, who was staying at the mansion for a few weeks during the summer to catch up with old friends, and the two of them chatted quietly in Russian before sharing a huge bear hug.

For some reason, though, that seemed to set Katie off, and she very quietly started to cry and hug Storm tighter, clearly terrified and unable to stop crying. "I want Mr. Logan," she demanded through her sniffles, repeating the demand louder and louder as she just seemed to get more upset.

Logan turned toward her and immediately walked away from Strange even as the man was still speaking. When he got to Katie, he crouched down and gently put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey kiddo, what's wrong?"

She shook her head and ran over to him to hide behind him instead of Storm. "I don't _wanna_ go with the bad guys," she practically wailed, clutching him tightly.

He glanced up at the two magic makers and then down to Katie. "What makes you think they're bad guys?"

She sniffled, trying to get her crying under control now that she was safer with her 'guardbody,' and pointed at Ilyanna. "She sounds like them," Katie all but whispered out.

He let out a breath as he realized what the problem was. "She talks funny," he said with a nod. "But it's only because she's from the same country they were," he tried to explain. "It's a very, very big country. And I've known Ilyanna since she was just a little bit bigger than you."

Katie kept a tight grip on his arm but sniffled again and looked up at him. "Not a bad guy?"

He looked at her very seriously. "If she was, I'd have to punch her."

She let out a hitched sort of giggle at that and nodded. "Yes you would," she said, rubbing at her eyes with tiny fists.

"You're not going with them anyhow," Logan promised. "Not without me, and I'm staying here."

"Good." She nodded and looked determined. "I don't wanna go with them."

"They do want to talk to you, though," Logan warned. "But not alone. And they won't touch you," he promised. "Will you?" he said a bit harshly toward Strange.

"No," Strange replied quickly, though he was frowning at Logan. "We won't even try to touch you," he added with a kind smile Katie's way.

"Just talk, right?" Katie scrubbed at her eyes some more as she tried to put on a braver face. "I like telling stories." When Strange nodded again, she just looked up at Logan and then grabbed his hand. "Okay. But Mr. Logan has to stay."

Strange smiled and nodded. "Of course."

She even smiled a bit at that, though she was still half hiding behind Logan. "What do you want to talk about?" she asked Strange shyly. "I have lots of stories. Do you want to hear about the boy bike?"

"Talk about whatever you like," Strange told her. "But I'm afraid everyone but you and Mr. Logan need to leave the room for your stories." He looked up to the gathered X-Men, none of whom gave any argument, except of course for Kurt, who simply looked hesitant to leave.

Katie looked at Strange and Logan for a moment before she abandoned them both and ran over to give Kurt a hug around the knees. "Don't worry, Mr. Nightcrawler. If Mr. Logan says they're not bad guys, then we don't need your help, but thank you for looking out for us," she told him sincerely before she turned to Strange and said, "He's the best good guy there is!"

"I'll be right outside if you change your mind," Kurt promised, still looking a bit reluctant to leave, though he did finally close the door behind him.

After that, Katie beamed and skipped over to sit with Logan on the couch before she looked up at Strange with a shy sort of expression on her face. "Mr. Nightcrawler's really neat," she said quietly. "Even though he was kind of scary when I first met him. Do you want to hear that story?"

"Please," Strange replied with a kind smile. "I'd love to hear that story."

Katie beamed as she started to kick her feet again while she told her story. "Mr. Logan is a really good guardbody, but he's very bad at shopping for girls," she said seriously. "And I didn't have _any clothes_ after I took my bath, so Mr. Nightcrawler went and got me some, but I didn't know he was an _X-Man._ I thought he was a monster!" She illustrated her point with a dramatic look of fear. "And I screamed at him, didn't I, Mr. Logan?" She didn't wait for Logan to join in. "I did. It wasn't very nice, and I said I was sorry much later, because it's not very nice to scream at people, even if they scare you. Unless they're bad guys. Then you can scream really, really loud. That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it, Mr. Logan?"

"That's right, kiddo," Logan agreed as Strange started to quietly cast his spells trying to decipher what had happened to cause her to turn small.

"That's right, because then Mr. Logan can hear me, and he can… he can…" Katie started to trail off, distracted by what Strange was doing as the room started to darken while he cast the spells, having to dig a bit deeper than just surface spells as he searched out the cause of her condition. And when the light seemed only to get dimmer as Strange worked, she let out a little whimpering noise and buried her face in Logan's side, completely abandoning her story.

"It's okay, little darlin'," Logan promised as he wrapped his arm around her. "Nothin's gonna hurt you."

She just buried herself deeper in his side, but when the scary magic show just kept going, she started to cry again, this time louder than when she'd cried over Ilyanna.

Logan turned to pick her up and try to snuggle her, one hand on her head as he hugged her with the other arm, muttering that she was safe and it was just a little light and wind and "...if Ol' Doc Strange here keeps scaring you, I'm gonna punch him square in the mouth."

It wasn't very long after that when the lights returned to normal and the wind died down, though Katie was still clutching to her 'guardbody,' and Logan was glaring at Strange.

"It seems that someone with growing, possibly uncontrolled, power cast this spell, and I'm not sure there is anything that I can do about it — not without knowing what exactly they were _trying_ to do," Strange told them after a moment, frowning between both of them. "I'm sorry, Wolverine, but I don't recognize the spell or the caster, and I can't do anything to reverse it without risking your Hawkeye when I don't know what the purpose of the spell — and its potential repercussions — might be."

Logan looked over to Ilyanna, who nodded her head in agreement. "Figure out who cast the spell, and I'll help beat it out of them if I need to," she promised.

"Thanks anyhow," Logan replied with a sigh. It wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, but at least they knew more than they did before. "Any idea how to track them down?"

Strange took a seat in a nearby chair. "Most magic seems to hold a signature — but this is not … exactly known. It may not have been intentional, or it may not have been fully complete - which makes it difficult to pin down — but all I can do is watch for any magic with the same … flavor to it."

"So we gotta just wait it out?" Logan asked and was not surprised in the least when Strange just nodded quietly. He let out a breath and just glanced down at Katie, who was still sniffling and not quite able to stop crying a tired, scared sort of cry.

The four of them sat there for a little while, with Ilyanna wishing that she could help to comfort the scared little girl, but when it was apparent that Katie wasn't going to loosen her grip anytime soon, Logan decided to try and help her out of it.

"Hey. You want me to punch him?" he asked quietly. "He stopped. No more scary light show."

She picked her head up but didn't let go of his shirt. "What if he does it again?" she asked very quietly.

"I'll slap the taste right out of his mouth."

"You promised he was a good guy," she accused him, her lower lip out.

"He is," Logan swore. "But you know how Nightcrawler looks bad but is good? This guy looks normal and is a little scary. But he's real good. I can still hit him though."

She pouted a little bit. "How come good guys are scary? They should all look like Jubes."

"Sometimes," Logan said slowly. "Sometimes the good guys have to be scary enough to scare off the bad guys."

She thought about it for a long moment and put her head back down on his shoulder. "I don't like it," she said simply.

"I know," Logan said as he hugged her again.

She snuggled in for a moment, starting to settle out, before she picked her head up again. "How come he called you… he called you something weird. What's a Wolf Ravine?"

He smiled at her for that one. "Wolverine," he corrected. "It's my other name. Like you call my friend Kurt Mr. Nightcrawler."

Her eyes widened as she studied him. "Is that, like, your last name?" She leaned forward and whispered, "Or is it an _X-Man_ name like Mr. Nightcrawler?"

"It's my X-Man name," he admitted before he continued in a whisper. "I'm supposed to keep that part secret."

She stared at him open-mouthed for a long moment and then giggled and put a finger to her mouth. "Okay," she agreed. "No telling anybody." She looked very, very serious as she asked, "Does Daddy know he hired an _X-Man_?"

"Yes," Logan told her. "Because I'm the best."

She nodded and just grinned at him before she finally scrunched up her nose and turned to Doctor Strange to waggle her finger at him. "You shouldn't scare people unless they're bad guys," she said severely, with all the seriousness a four-and-a-half-year-old could muster. "That's not very nice."

"I try not to scare anyone if I can help it," Strange promised her with a small smile.

She nodded at him and then snuggled back into Logan for a while, her breathing settled out now as she finally had a handle on her earlier terror. "How come everybody looks so scared?" she asked Logan. "You said the light show was over."

"He must've scared himself," Logan told her.

"Don't scare yourself," Kate told Strange over her shoulder. "That won't help you fight bad guys, silly!" She turned her attention back to Logan. "He's not as good of an X-Man as you are," she said seriously. "Not if he gets scared. _You_ don't get scared, do you, Mr. Logan?"

"Not very often at all," he told her. "But it takes a lot more than him to do it."

She nodded several times over and just curled back into him, getting more comfortable.

Strange and Ilyanna waved their goodbyes and simply left — though once they were out of the room, they filled in the rest of the X-Men so that there wouldn't be a lengthy explanation in front of Katie. That way, she had a chance to try and return to her usual bubbly self as Logan just snuggled her.

It would have been an understatement to say that they were disheartened at the news that there was nothing they could do for the moment but wait until the right spellcaster was found - however long that took. As much fun as they were having taking care of Katie, every one of them wanted her back to normal for her own sake.

Kurt in particular looked downright upset, because while he loved playing with Katie, that little girl simply wasn't the woman he was in love with. He had really only been able to make it through the past couple of days because he had just been waiting for Strange and Ilyanna - and now? With an indefinite time limit hanging over his head, the others could actually see the visible change in Kurt as his shoulders drooped and he just looked a bit down.

After Strange and Ilyanna left, Kurt just leaned against the wall, letting out all his breath at once as he passed a hand over his face.

Kate was stuck like this — and they didn't know for how long.

For a moment, without Katie around to see, Kurt just allowed himself to feel upset, the weight of it falling on his shoulders. This … this was not going to be a quick, 48-hour affair like he'd hoped. And in the meantime, Kate, _his_ Kate, simply didn't exist.

He felt a touch at his arm and looked up just in time for Ororo to simply wrap him in a hug, and he leaned into her shoulder for some time until she saw fit to let him go.

"We _will_ fix this," she told him firmly, and he just nodded.

"Yes, we will."

Kurt took another few moments to himself, simply because he _needed_ to, before he popped in to check on Katie and Logan and somehow wasn't surprised at all to see that little Katie had tired herself out again and was quickly falling asleep on Logan's chest, no matter how valiantly she was trying to stay awake. Her head would droop and then pick back up again, and she was fighting to keep her eyes open.

Kurt smiled softly as Logan gave him a look that clearly asked for help escaping out from under the little girl. "Come on, Katie," Kurt said gently as he bent down to pick her up, and she let him scoop her up into his arms. "I think we should find you a bamf doll."

She just put her head down on his shoulder and gave him a tiny 'uh-huh' before he teleported them both upstairs to tuck her in — complete with a little blue bamf doll. She beamed at the doll as well as the teddy bear as she snuggled both of them and promptly fell asleep with one arm around each of her stuffed toys.


	6. Snips and Snails and Cutting Off Tails

**From robbie: Oh honey. Bless your heart. You have no idea… We've said before we have plans but for real, we have entire** _ **volumes**_ **in the rough draft stages waiting for us to finish editing them. We have been foreshadowing stuff that happens in, like… *counts* five or six volumes from now. We have PLANS, my friend. Trust us ;) In the meantime, though, don't worry about our plans. Just enjoy Katie RULING THE X-MEN with an ADORABLE PURPLE FIST. :D**

 **From CC- JD- YES. I love making Logan uncomfortable like that. Magic is one thing he can't really counter, though he does his best, and I think Thor counts in magic too. Now, him able to kill Galactus is just silly (coming from a MAJOR fangirl, that's saying something) The Hulk? Well. Maybe. You know. If all the planets are aligned right and there's a tail wind or something on a fastball special.** _ **Maybe**_ **.**

 **Also Hi, Scruffy! *muah***

* * *

 **Chapter 6:"Snips and Snails and Cutting Off Tails"**

The next morning at breakfast, Kate seemed to be in high spirits — and giving out hugs with delighted giggles. She'd brought the bamf doll down to breakfast to show the bamfs, and somehow, that had led to a whole lot of hugging each of them that Kurt didn't know how to stop — and didn't exactly want to, considering how much giggling was going on, both from the bamfs and from Katie.

With Katie clearly having a grand time, moving on from hugging to other games now, Kurt slipped off with Logan into the War Room after breakfast. With Strange and Ilyanna's revelation that there was little they could do until they found out who had cast the spell, Kurt was just itching to _do_ something, to track down whoever this was and _fix this_.

Logan could see that his best friend was no longer taking the de-aging of his girlfriend as well as he had been, so he already had a few different possibilities in mind as he just took Kurt around the shoulders and led him away from the giggling girl.

"Believe it or not, I think she can color just fine without you for ten minutes," Logan said.

Kurt glanced back to where Katie was laid out flat on her stomach with a box of crayons dumped out in front of her and a Disney princess coloring book and just had to nod. "Alright. Let's just ... find whoever is responsible," he said with a sigh.

"That's the spirit," Logan said with a teasing tone. "We'll make whoever it is pay by lookin' at that long face."

Kurt just gave Logan a _look_ but almost couldn't help returning the tease by putting on a much more demonic expression, teeth bared, for just a moment as they hit the War Room. "That one?"

"Little bit better. I think you can go more 'rage'."

Kurt just shook his head with a little laugh. "I'll save that for when we have someone I can direct it toward."

Logan just put his arm across Kurt's shoulders, and the two of them got down to work looking for whatever they could that might tip them off to who did this, since they couldn't fix it until they found the source.

In the meantime, though, Katie was still delightedly coloring her Disney princesses, her feet kicking behind her as she hummed lightly to herself, though she got a bit distracted when she saw Warbird pass by and the Shi'ar fighter couldn't help but pause at the sight of the little girl surrounded by crayons and happily working away in her little book.

She drifted into the room slowly, watching the marks Katie was making on her book — delightedly going outside of the lines on purpose while she sang to herself. "What are you doing?" Warbird asked with her head tipped to the side a bit.

"Coloring," Katie replied happily. She seemed to be studying Warbird and her completely alien look as she tipped her head to the side, though unlike with Kurt, she didn't immediately freak out — likely since, well, she'd been with the _X-Men_ for days now.

"For what purpose?"

"Just because," Katie said, still with her head to one side. "Are you an X-Man?" she finally had to ask. "Or are you an Avenger?"

"Neither," she said, stepping cautiously closer. "I am a royal guard to the Shi'ar Empire."

"I don't know what any of that means, but okay," Katie said with her lower lip out in a bit of a pout for a moment before she just shrugged her shoulders. "I like your feathers."

"I like your shoes," Warbird replied.

Katie beamed at that and kicked her feet back and forth with a little more vigor. "They're sparkly," she said with a giggle before she looked around out the crayons everywhere and grabbed up a couple, holding them out in one hand for Warbird. "Do you wanna color? I can share. I know how to share."

Warbird looked a bit surprised by the offer and just stood there for a moment before she slowly nodded her head. "Yes. I will try it."

"It's not hard," Katie assured Warbird as the Shi'ar sat down on her other side so she could reach the opposite page. The little girl flipped to two untouched pages and started to color in Princess Jasmine's outfit - purple, of course - and then paused so Warbird could see. "Look, see? If you _want_ to, you can follow the lines, but sometimes it's fun to just do whatever."

"I do not like the attire of these … women," she said with a frown before Katie showed her how she liked to add things to their outfits.

"You can give them pretty sleeves and scarves and belts and jewelry and stuff," Katie explained. "My big sister makes _whole dresses_ when she colors," she added as she drew long, pink, billowy, squiggly lines that she probably thought were pretty additions to the outfits.

Warbird watched her work for a moment before she started to add what looked suspiciously like Shi'ar armor to Pocahontas.

The two of them worked in relative silence, except for Katie's consistent humming to herself, and Katie was half leaned over Warbird's arm watching her detailed work when Noh found the two of them and simply _froze_ in the doorway.

Warbird looked up at him for a moment and scowled but continued her play with Katie, who just waved at Noh briefly before returning to Jasmine, who now had beautiful bracelets that Katie was drawing charms on.

"What… are you two doing?" Noh asked when he finally pulled himself out of his shock, his eyes wide as he was clearly trying to maintain a civil tone around Katie.

"Coloring," Katie said simply, grinning wide at him. "We only have one book, though — but if you ask Jubes, she might give you one. I think she has lots."

But Noh just glanced toward Warbird and shook his head. "That's alright," he told Katie. "I'll just remain here." He took a seat on the nearest couch and simply put in one earbud for his music, watching out for the little Hawkeye who was far too close to the Shi'ar Imperial guard for Noh's taste, even if they were just coloring.

It wasn't long before Katie was bored of her page of the coloring book, though, and instead was just watching Warbird work until she burst out with, "Can you teach me that?" She pointed at where Warbird was sketching out a ceremonial-looking sword for Pocahontas.

"Teach you what, little one?" she asked with a curious look.

"Swords," Katie said, pointing again. "How do you draw them so pretty?"

Warbird couldn't help but glance at Noh with a smirk before she simply started showing Katie how to make a proper sword, and the names that went with the weaponry. Katie had a hard time saying some of the Shi'ar words, but she tried so valiantly and broke into giggles that had Warbird smirking harder as she tried to show Katie how to properly form the words.

"The word for sword is much easier to say in my language, Katie," Noh said, breaking in as he just… couldn't let this go on any longer, especially when Warbird was specifically teaching Katie the word for weapons designed for hurting Kree.

Warbird gave him a bit of a glare, but Katie picked her head up. "Oooh, can you teach me those words, too?" she asked, and Noh shot Warbird a triumphant look for a moment before he did just that, sitting down on her other side to teach her not only the word for sword but the word for the specific blade used to pierce Shi'ar armor.

Katie, of course, had no idea what the two aliens were up to as she just delightedly tried to say each different word, the two languages hard to switch between as Shi'ar had more hard stops and sounds beyond her alphabet and Kree, when spoken properly, included sounds that didn't register to human ears that were hard to translate to English. But that didn't stop Katie from giving it her all, and she was giggling madly and clearly enjoying herself by the time Jubilee found them.

"I know what you guys are up to? And you're both ridiculous," Jubilee said with a grin before she handed Noh his phone. "It's been ringing off the hook."

Noh glanced up at Jubilee with a look that had no shame in it at all as Katie repeated the word for a kind of gun that wreaked havoc on Shi'ar with a little giggle, but he took the phone, frowned at the missed calls, and stepped away from the girls as he searched through his messages — and Katie let Jubilee know what she'd been learning all morning.

"Miss Warbird taught me how to draw swords, look," Katie said, showing Jubilee Ariel's new Shi'ar blade — or the four-year-old version of it, anyway.

"She did, didn't she?" Jubilee said with a smile. "I'm surprised she hasn't offered to teach you how to use them yet."

"She is old enough," Warbird said with a smile.

"Oooooh," Katie beamed at Warbird. "Can you teach me, pretty pretty please?"

"Of course," Warbird said with a nod.

"But not today," Noh broke in, looking up from his phone with a glare between Warbird and Jubilee.

"Why not?" Jubilee said, barely restraining the laugh. "It'd be fun."

Noh considered her for a moment before he just smirked. "Then you are in charge of acquiring permission to teach her from her bodyguard," he said.

But Jubilee just grinned wider. "You say that like it's hard or something."

"For small girls and matters of protection?" Noh matched her grin. "Yes."

"But we'd be learning how to stop evil alien invaders," Jubilee said, totally falling into giggles.

"Please?" Katie joined in, eyes wide.

Noh looked between them all and just shook his head. "As much as it pains me to admit it, Warbird is right — she _is_ old enough. But if she must learn swords…" He looked toward Katie with a small smile. "You know, Logan and Nightcrawler are excellent swordsmen."

"Oooh, they _are_?" Katie broke into excited giggles as, before anyone could say anything further, she simply took off at a run, clearly on a mission to find one of her two favorite X-Men to demand lessons.

"You are an expert at diverting little girl's attention," Jubilee said with a broad smile before she made a point to give him a kiss. "Why don't you teach her, Mr. Excellent at Many Things?"

"I would love to," he replied, stealing another kiss for himself. "But it seems I'll have to slip away for just a little while. I received a distress call from Teddy — they seem to be stranded in space."

"How did that happen?" Jubilee asked with a little frown. "Do you need help?"

"You are of course welcome to come," he said with a reassuring smile. "It's nothing to worry about — they had the villains well in hand. It's simply that Wiccan seems to have accidentally destroyed their transport in the process of the fight — they weren't quite clear on details. I think he is embarrassed."

"Oh. Well. I suppose that's a hazard from him."

"Despite what we pretend, those of us who were once Young Avengers are still, well, young," Noh said with a rueful smile. "I think you'd call this ... growing pains."

"When you catch up to me, I'll let you know," Jubilee teased. "Not all of us can be born totally awesome superheroes waiting to happen."

"No," Noh teased. "Some of us had to be made that way specifically — without a happy accident of birth."

"How sad for you — but how _fortunate_ that you have me to help you." She gave him a brilliant smile before she popped up on her toes for a kiss.

He laughed and then kissed her back before he asked, "So, will you be joining me to go and help our stranded friends? Or should I leave you here for documentation?"

"Ooh," she said turning toward Spidey, who had just come in on hearing that there was something document-worthy going on with crayons and Warbird. "Can you handle her for a little while? The guys are just in the ready room."

Peter looked over at Kate, who was still giggling with the bamfs as they fought over the blue and purple crayons, and shrugged. "Sure," he said, nodding. "I can handle things here."

"Great! Have fun with him, Katie!" Jubilee called out. "See you soon!"

Katie looked up at Jubilee and waved cheerfully. "Where are you going? Are you going to get married like Mr. Logan says you're not?"

Jubilee frowned for just a second. "I guess I might have to have a word with Wolvie when I get back," she told her, her hands on her hips. "We're going to go pick up some friends that got stranded."

"Are they fun friends or scary friends?" Katie asked seriously.

"The funnest. You'll love them."

She giggled delightedly. "Well, if _you_ say they're fun, then they must be!"

"Yes, Jubilee certainly knows how to have fun," Noh agreed with a warm smile. "Keep an eye on Spiderman, Katie. Don't let him get into too much trouble, alright?"

Kate just giggled and nodded. "I'll keep him under control," she said, as if this was a monumental trust.

All seemed well, with Katie clearly in charge of the adults and having a _blast_ with her responsibilities, until a short time later when Kurt and Logan rushed past, clearly on their way out the door. They might have made it, too, if Spidey hadn't called out and asked where they were headed in such a rush.

This, of course, had Katie immediately concerned, and she completely abandoned playing Cat's Cradle with Spiderman to run over to where Logan and Kurt were with her hands on her hips, glaring at both of them. "You're not _supposed_ to leave me by myself!" she accused them both in a huff and stomped one foot.

"We're not leaving you by yourself," Logan promised. "Petey is going to keep you company, and we'll be right back. This won't take too long."

"I want to go too!" she said, hands still on her hips and giving him her best determined look.

"Darlin', you just can't. Remember Dr. Strange?" Logan asked as he crouched down to her level. "The lights and the wind and all the noise?"

She frowned but nodded. "You said he's a good guy who scares bad guys."

"Yes. He is a good guy, and he found the bad guy we're looking for. But there's going to be a lot of scary lights and stuff."

She thought it over and then went back to glaring at him. "Then make Spiderman go. I don't _want_ you to go!"

He let out a sigh. "Spidey can't do this," he tried to explain. "Kurt needs my help — for what I can do."

"But _I_ need you, too!" she insisted stubbornly.

"I know," he replied, nodding. "But if I don't go help him, he could get hurt very badly."

Katie paused at that and looked to Kurt with a little frown. In a small voice, she said, "I don't want him to get hurt."

Kurt smiled kindly at her. "Don't worry, _Kuken_. As long as I have Logan with me, I'll be fine." He looked her way, and the smile widened for a moment. "Thank you for sharing him with me. That's very nice of you."

Katie didn't look pleased at all as she crossed her arms and glared at both of them. "You have to come back fast," she instructed them with her finger pointed at them.

"That's the idea," Logan agreed. "We'll run."

She let out a long and dramatic sigh. "O- _kay_. I _guess_ I can play with Spidey."

"Um, excuse me," Spidey called out. "Who exactly are you going after?"

Kurt gave him a _look_ as he said, simply, "Margali."

"Oh." Peter tried to hide his surprise a bit too late. "Shouldn't take _too_ long then. Good luck." With that, Kurt teleported himself and Logan out of the mansion, leaving little Katie to scrunch up her nose at Peter.

"Why are they going after bad guys?" Katie asked him curiously. "I thought the Avengers were taking care of bad guys at my house."

"The Avengers don't handle someone like her," Spidey said. "They're too busy, but — she's still a bad guy that is causing big trouble, so they need to go after her." He gave her an encouraging smile and a thumbs-up. "Don't worry. They know what they're doing."

She didn't quite look convinced and just stamped her foot. "Everybody is going to fight bad guys," she complained. She scrunched up her little nose and put her hands on her hips. "You're going to leave me too, aren't you?" she accused him.

"Me? No! No, no! I wouldn't do that! I wanted to watch movies and eat popcorn and you know — goof around," he promised, one hand on his heart.

"And then you'll get done, and you'll leave," she said, still glaring at him.

"Cross my heart, I won't ever get done screwing around and eating popcorn. And before you know it, Nightcrawler and Wolvie will be back, and you can yell at them until you're sick of it."

She kept the glare all the way until she was sitting cross-legged in front of him. "You're a liar," she said under her breath.

"Hey. I am _not_ a liar," Spidey said as he sank down to sit cross legged with her. "C'mon, Katie. What do you want to do? Wanna have a water balloon fight? Go swimming? Throw Bobby in the pool? What?"

"I wanna go home." She was settling into a nice pout now, even though it looked like she might crack a smile at the idea of throwing Bobby in the pool.

"If I hug you, are you gonna bite me?" Spidey asked. "Because you look like you can use a hug — but I don't need to be bitten."

She seemed to take an awful long time to consider the question before she shook her head. "No. No biting."

"You sure that's not some sneaky trick to get me close enough to bite? Because that would totally work."

She shook her head at him and started to giggle despite her best attempt to pout. "That's silly," she told him. "You shouldn't let people bite you."

"I don't know," Spidey said. "I try not to let people bite me — but sometimes .. just when I least expect it. _Oush_."

She burst into little giggles and shook her head hard. "No biting from me," she promised. "I'm not a bad guy!"

He looked at her suspiciously. "I've heard that before too," he said slowly before he put his arms up to hug her. He got halfway to her before he froze and whipped his head in her direction. "You're super sure? Still don't want to bite, right?"

She shook her head and looked very serious. "Super duper sure."

He let out a huge sigh of relief and theatrically let his shoulders and half his body sag as he let out a ' _phew_!' "Oh good. I was worried." He scooted a little closer for the hug, and just before she let him hug her, he cringed and made a little noise until she giggled and hugged him back. "Hey. You are a good hugger."

"See? I told you I wouldn't bite you!" she said, still giggling.

"Thank you. You are just … I love Katie hugs," he told her.

She giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck for a tighter hug. "I like Spidey hugs too," she told him matter-of-factly.

* * *

Logan and Kurt had teleported nearly to Margali's doorstep, but they couldn't find any reliable sign of her. The trail was cold. There was no indicator of her having been there in the immediate past. Nothing useful.

Until Kurt nearly ran right into her.

"Well, this is a surprise," Margali said, seeming to emerge from the shadows themselves as she looked over Kurt and Logan. "When last we met, you vowed to have nothing to do with me, child. And yet here you are again."

"You've been meddling," Kurt replied angrily, his tail switching behind him and his hands clenched into fists. "Reverse your spell."

Margali let out a little laugh and regarded him with an almost amused expression. "I've done as you requested and left you _alone_ ," she replied.

Kurt tipped his chin down, clearly not believing her but also not wanting to expose to her what had happened lest she find a way to take advantage. "Why don't I believe you then?"

"That is your own fault," she said carelessly. "There was a time you called me mother — and now, you appear on my doorstep to hurl accusations at my feet."

"She's not lyin', Elf," Logan said quietly. `

"Listen to your Wolverine," Margali said, though she had yet to do more than that to even acknowledge Logan's presence.

Kurt frowned for a moment at his best friend before he looked to Margali and saw a familiar troublesome spark in her gaze. "We can't turn our back on her," Kurt said in a low rumble. "She won't let us walk away that easily now."

Margali let out something that almost passed as a soft smile. "If you are having trouble, dear child, why don't you ask for my help rather than simply demanding answers?"

"Because I know that if this isn't your doing, you'll only twist it worse," Kurt replied evenly.

"I hope it's not a matter of urgency," Margali said with a twisting smile as she waved a hand bright with energy, and several large figures seemed to lumber out of the nearby woods. "I was hoping you might stay and speak with me. I'm told by your father there is much to discuss."

"I hate your parents," Logan growled out as the giant golems closed in on them. "All of 'em."

"Trust me, Wolverine - I know," Kurt said before he reached out a hand to put it on Logan's shoulder and try to teleport them out of there, but no such luck. Even the little bamfs seemed stuck in place and unable to teleport, wide-eyed and frustrated. There would be no easy way out of this fight, it seemed.

* * *

"Ready or not, here I come!" Peter called out as he rushed around the main floor, peeking around corners and looking behind curtains until the sounds of giggles caught his ear. "I'm gonna find you, and when I do, I'm gonna tickle you!"

More giggles echoed the room as Peter tried very hard to avoid the little spot Katie had chosen - a built-in cabinet that was cracked open just enough that he could see a sparkling shoelace sticking out. He started to act more dramatically the closer he got to her until she giggled again and he made a leap with a scared-sounding _eep_ , and when Katie peeked out to see no shoes anywhere, she was surprised to see him walking on the ceiling.

She giggled and ducked back into her hiding place. "Don't see me!" she called out.

"What was that?!" He half shouted. "I … I heard something, but no one's here! Are you … are you a _ghost_?"

She was giggling uncontrollably by that point and completely unable to answer, both little hands clapped over her mouth in an unsuccessful attempt to be quiet.

He finally made his way over to the wall and began to crawl down it until he was just above the cabinet, but instead of just opening the door, he knocked first. "Door to door ice cream salesman. Is anybody home?"

Giggling harder, Katie responded with her best spooky-sounding, "Oooooooh."

Spidey mock-screamed his best terrified lady and tumbled from the wall before he fell apart laughing with her.

Katie poked her head out of the cabinet, tears rolling down her face with laughter. "Did I scare you, Spidey? Did I get you?"

He picked his head up off the floor to look at her and covered his heart with one hand. "Oh. OH _it's you!_ " He let out a sigh of relief and laid his head back on the floor. "Oh my gosh, _Katie_ don't do that. You nearly killed me."

She giggled as she made her way over to where he was and looked him over with as much concern as she could muster when she was still falling apart with little laughs. "Are you gonna be okay? Do you need hugs? I didn't _mean_ to scare you that badly!"

"I need hugs … and … and ice cream," he told her seriously. "Can you go for something sweet too? We can take our game outside afterwards." He leaned closer to her to stage whisper. "I think there are too many ghosts in the classrooms."

She fell apart giggling again as she nodded. "Yes, please. Ice cream!" she said.

"Want a spidey-back ride?" he asked, his head tipped to the side.

She nodded and giggled and clapped her hands. "Yes! Yes, please!"

He sat up and let her climb on then started to head toward the door before he put one foot on the wall. "Full Spidey wall crawler?"

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and nodded delightedly. "Don't drop me!" she warned him.

"Oh. Don't worry about that," he said before he webbed her feet to his sides. "Can't fall off now!" With that, he walked right up the wall and onto the ceiling before heading down the hall with her hair hanging straight down. They passed Bobby on the way. "Hey! High five, Iceman!" He stopped and turned his head Katie's way. "Seriously. High five Iceman."

She giggled and held out her hand. "High five, Iceman!" she called out.

Bobby iced up just enough to reach her with a broad grin. "You going to feed and water your spider, Miss? Watch out. I'm not sure he won't make a mess on the rug."

She laughed outright and just shook her head. "No, silly. He's all grown up now! He's bigger than me, you know."

"Oh! Well, it's hard to tell when you're both upside down! You look taller like this."

She giggled and nodded, fluffing her hair as it hung down below her. "It's because _all_ my hair is so long!" she said seriously. "It's as tall as I was when I was two!"

"That. Is really really tall," Bobby said. "Have fun! If you need snowballs later, let me know!"

"I will!" she promised. "And maybe we can steal some water pistols too!"

"You got it! Water fight before dinner, okay?"

"You're gonna get really, really wet!" she promised him.

Spidey walked down the hall upside down, making a show of stepping through the doorways as needed and finally going right down the wall before he let her down and Katie ran over to pick out her toppings for ice cream.

"I like chocolate the best," she told him as she set the chocolate syrup down on the table. "If you put chocolate on your ice cream, no matter what flavor it is, it turns into chocolate if you mix it up right!"

"Not sherbet," he replied. "And I happen to like orange."

She made a face and nodded. "That's true," she admitted. "Sherbet is _gross_ with chocolate." She started to hum to herself as she got out the sprinkles. "When everybody gets back from fighting bad guys, they are gonna be _so_ jealous they didn't get ice cream with us."

"Totally jealous," he agreed before he lifted his mask enough to have his ice cream with her. "Maybe you need a mask too," Peter suggested.

She giggled and nodded. "Do you have a purple one?" she asked.

"No, but I'll bet Storm knows where we can find something like that."

"I like Storm," Katie agreed as she stirred around her ice cream. "She's nice."

"We should get her on our side for the water fight, do you know why?" Peter asked with a visible grin.

Katie shrugged. "Because she's a girl?"

"Well, yeah, but also — _she can make it rain just on Bobby._ " He said it in a theatrical whisper and just nodded his head afterward over and over.

"Just on Bobby?" Katie repeated with wide eyes.

"Yep. Total downpour."

Katie giggled and nodded. "Yes. She should be on our side," she agreed.

* * *

Night had fallen in the forest while Logan and Kurt had been trying to outrun Margali's creations. Kurt kept trying to find the limits of the lock on his teleporting powers, stopping every once in a while to try again with the same results every time. They were stuck.

He had just paused to try teleporting again when a large golem appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and he backflipped away from it, wide-eyed, before he turned to Logan in obvious frustration. "I really don't think she wants us to leave," he said.

"If I knew where she was, I'd stab her," Logan called back to him as the two of them fought to hold back the growing number of golems. "We going the right way?"

"I think so." Kurt tried to teleport again, jaw clenched in concentration, then sighed. "It _feels_ like the spell is easing up, at least."

Both of them were half beaten down by the time the trees started to thin, and the golems were growing more stiff as they neared freedom, but when Kurt turned, he stopped dead in his tracks as he cut down a golem only to come face to face with his _father_ grinning back at him. "By all means, boy. Go home," Azazel said in a tone filled with teasing malice.

"You ... how did you get here?" Kurt practically spluttered, eyes wide.

"That part doesn't matter nearly as much when compared to the fact that we are both here," Azazel replied with a wide grin before he paused and glanced around the forest. "Where is that lovely girl of yours?"

Kurt's tail was switching behind him as his hands clenched into fists. "I didn't bring her to meet Margali, if that's what you're asking," he said through his teeth. "I think she's seen quite enough of my family."

"Oh, that's just the wrong attitude," Azazel said. "Why don't you go get her? We can have a little fun with your dear adoptive mother."

"I'll not give you what you want," Kurt said, eyes narrowed. "And I won't put her in danger again." He reached for his sword as he said it. "I won't let you leverage her life against me."

"For now," Azazel answered before a new wave of golems rose up from the ground around them and pushed to attack the two X-Men. "Go ahead, get yourself out of danger. You're free of Margali's spell."

"I doubt it was coincidence that the spell ended the moment we found you," Kurt replied as he and Logan squared up to take on the incoming wave. "I told you before — I won't give you what you want. My answer hasn't changed."

Azazel laughed at him, and a moment later, Kurt watched as the golems managed to bash Logan far away from him for Azazel to fight, and the golems surrounded Kurt — isolating him from his friend unless he teleported.

Kurt let out a cry of frustration as he pulled out both swords and just started to cut through the golems as best he could, though to his growing irritation, it seemed that the more golems he cut through, the more they just seemed to keep coming back.

He could hear the familiar sound of Logan fighting somewhere beyond the golems — the loud roar of the creatures as well as the answering growls of his best friend — but he couldn't get close enough even to see how Logan was doing.

Logan, on the other side of the fight, was frustrated more than anything that he wasn't able to do more damage than he was doing, and the very last thing he needed was a phone call — but no matter how much he ignored it, the damn thing kept ringing. And he could deny it as much as he liked — he was worried that the call might be about Katie. So, with a frustrated growl, he pushed forward and took the hit from Azazel's sword just to kick him in the chest hard enough to knock him off his feet to buy himself enough time to see what the hell was going on.

He frowned when he saw it was Jubes pushing for the call — and he didn't even get all of a snarled ' _what'_ out before she started filling him in on what they thought had happened with Kate. He just stood there in silence for a moment as Azazel got back to his feet, growling, and Jubilee talked at what Logan was sure had to be about four hundred miles an hour.

"...andBilly'shereandhavingtroubleanditsoundslikehemighthavedoneitonaccident … andwe'reonourway!"

"You better be right, because Kurt and I are fighting Azazel right now," he told her as the red demon lunged forward. He raised his free arm in time to stop the sword, and Jubilee began asking rapid-fire questions as Azazel got more and more angry that Logan was insulting him by fighting him one handed. "I really can't do this right now, kiddo. I'm in the middle of something," Logan growled out before he just hung up and went back to it, just looking for an opening to knock Azazel out or _something._

Azazel launched into a new attack with far more venom than before at the insult of fighting a distracted Wolverine, and the two were deeply locked in combat until they heard—

" _Tothesourceofthephonecall. Tothesourceofthephonecall. Tothesourceofthephonecall._ "

In a little flash of light, Billy and Teddy were standing in the middle of the forest, with Noh and Jubilee close behind them as Billy collapsed to his knees and shook his head hard at the effort of transporting them all across such a great distance — from space to the forest on Earth.

Both Logan and Azazel glanced over at the kids, and with a growl, Azazel took advantage of Logan's distraction and ran him through — which only set Jubilee off. She rushed forward even before the demon had pulled his sword free — three claws embedded in his own stomach as Jubilee raised her hands in rage and started building up a massive plasmoid.

"Uh, Jubes?" Teddy said as he was helping Billy to a safer spot. "Last time we fought this guy, Nightcrawler was really, really insistent on not killing him."

"Yeah, well — he's like that. But this guy is a creep!" she barked back before Logan shouted at her to back off.

"He's trying to get us to kill him or Kurt to 'port," He called back. "Pull it back!"

With a frustrated growl of her own, she did just that — pulling the blast back to something that would just knock both of them off their feet instead. "I'm still gonna burn that stupid goatee off his face!" she warned.

"It would improve his reflection," Noh told her with a nod as he set to shooting golems. "Where is Nightcrawler?"

"By the stack of golems," Logan called back before he landed a solid punch to Azazel's jaw that sent him reeling. "I can't kill him, but I can break just about every damn bone in his body, right?"

"As long as you don't kill him, I don't see why not," Teddy agreed as he too joined the fight now that Billy was safely hidden.

Logan nodded as he got a better grip on Azazel, who was still reeling. "I'm gonna make you wish you were dead for a whole new set of reasons," he growled out before he just started pounding on him.

Everyone but Jubilee rushed off to help Kurt — and when they found him, he was positively surrounded by golems. As he'd suspected, every time he cut one solidly, it would split into two. "We need to stop Margali!" he shouted to them.

Noh blasted a few golems back to make a path, though they just came back with more when he did so, and nodded at Kurt. "Tell me where she is, and we will fight her together," he told Kurt as Teddy flapped his wings above them.

"Probably lurking near my father," Kurt replied.

Teddy extended a hand to Kurt. "Looks like you need an airlift out of here," he said as the golems started to close in on Noh and Kurt. He pulled both of them out of the cluster of golems, straining slightly as he flew them over the trees toward the main event, where Logan seemed to be quite enjoying himself.

"Logan!" Kurt called out as they reached the ground again. "I think you're having too much fun." To his distress, Logan just laughed a bit to himself as he twisted one of Azazel's arms just so — and it was clear that the demon was not doing as well as he'd like anyone to have seen.

Still, despite being battered and bruised, Azael was trying to taunt Logan as he spat out, "Coward!" He twisted in Logan's grip to bare his teeth at Logan. "You call yourself a warrior, but you cannot finish one simple job because of what _might_ happen?" Azazel let out a hollow laugh. "You are so frightened of my armies you dare not risk fighting them again."

Logan laughed earnestly at that before he twisted Azazel into a far more painful-looking position. When Azazel reached up with his tail to try and use it against Logan, Kurt winced as Logan caught it and broke the bone halfway down it to put a severe kink in it before he leaned over his shoulder.

"I fought off all of hell's armies and broke down the devil himself. Alone. Without my claws. You don't scare me. And you still aren't getting what you want," Logan rasped out low. "You want to talk about fear? Wait. If you get to hell or wherever first — you better hide 'cause I'm gonna come after you, and I'll shred it all on my way to you just because I can."

To Logan's surprise, Azazel just started to laugh. "And here I thought there was no hope for that boy," he said, his gaze falling on Kurt. "But if _this_ is who you choose as your best friend, perhaps there is more of me in you than you care to admit."

At that, Logan's lowest growl started to echo through the sparse trees, and both Jubilee and Kurt knew what was coming.

"Logan, _don't_ ," Kurt warned, his gaze hard as he looked at his father. "He's not worth another trip to hell. Don't give him the satisfaction."

It was pretty clear Logan was listening to Kurt, even if he couldn't stop that growl or soften it up, but he did retract his claws at least.

"And you've managed to find a way to control him as well," Azazel said with a laugh that echoed the trees. "Well done, my boy."

Kurt very nearly teleported over as Logan drew his arm back again and popped his claws. As his arm arced downward, Kurt started to shout Logan's direction _again_ to stop but was positively shocked when Logan twisted his body and, instead of slicing through something vital, simply hacked off Azazel's tail.

Kurt couldn't help but gasp as his own tail stilled behind him and his father positively howled in pain — which finally drew Margali from her hiding place as she, and Azazel, seemed to realize that Logan simply wasn't going to give the demon what he wanted.

"You wanna stop me from killin' that one too?" Logan asked.

"At the moment, I'm not inclined to, no," Kurt said with a glare Margali's way.

"Then I think we need a way to send this trash back to his island," Logan suggested. "I can cut off his legs if I thought it would keep him from walking off."

"Perhaps we should do this another time," Margali said softly, raising two glowing hands.

"You try and cast anything and I will cut your hands off and shove 'em down your throat," Logan warned.

She just laughed as her eyes started to glow as well, and a recognizable vortex appeared around her and underneath Azazel.

"Shoot her, Noh," Logan called out as he grabbed on tighter to Azazel.

"With pleasure," came the quick response as two Kree weapons fired up, knocking Margali back several steps though she tried at the last second to block the blasts — and the vortex closed up quickly.

"She tries any more crap like that and shoot somewhere more important," Logan told him. "Pretty sure no one will weep."

"So …. now what do we do with them?" Teddy asked quietly, looking over the still-pinned Azazel and the magic-user with her hands up and Noh's weapons trained on her. "I mean, it's not like we can just put them in the county jail."

"Kurt — you've got Steve's number right?" Logan asked.

"Yes," Kurt said carefully, not taking his gaze off his father in case anything else happened.

" _Not_ Rogers."

"Ah." Kurt nodded. "Yes. Give me just a moment to call him." Again, he didn't take his gaze off Azazel as he quickly pulled out his phone and didn't reveal anything except to quickly rattle off their coordinates and hang up again. "I think he knows where we are now."

"He said he'd be watching for trouble. He should have known anyhow," Logan replied as he tweaked Azazel again for breathing too heavily.

"To be fair, Wolverine, I was far more interested in the surge of magic that came across the skies to your position that bore the same signature we've been looking for," said Stephen Strange as he stepped out of a particularly dark patch of the woods and looked over the scene.

"You know the problem we have with dealing with my father, _ja_?" Kurt said shortly, still refusing to look anywhere but at his father as he addressed the sorcerer supreme. "Margali took him from his island, and we cannot trust her with him."

Strange looked over Azazel and then at Margali for a moment. "I can place him back on the island, but you must stop her from interfering," he said. "Or the dimensions may shift, and I understand that is exactly what he is after."

"I was hoping you'd do something more with _her_ ," Kurt said. "I don't want to give him half a chance to try and slip through dimensions." He glared at his foster mother for a moment before glancing up at Strange. "Perhaps you could bind her powers or take her where she cannot reach him."

"I think the second request would be a better option," Strange said thoughtfully, looking Margali over. "Yes, I think I know just the place." He stretched out a hand, and the gathered group almost tensed when the ground swirled around Margali's feet in a spiralling vortex — until it continued to move up her body, forming bonds and holding her fast in place as Strange turned to Kurt. "I will meet you where we last saw each other when I'm done. I believe I might be able to help with your other problem." He shot a significant glance at Billy before he and Margali disappeared in a flash of light.

"Okay, so now we just have to like … what? Get the demon to the island?" Jubilee asked, unsure of what to do now.

"I don't suppose we could use Noh's ship," Kurt said quietly. "Not when it travels dimensions."

"Not anymore, but it once had the capacity," Noh explained.

"Any other bright ideas?" Jubilee asked. "Or can we just like — let Wolvie knock him out?" She very nearly giggled at her next thought. "We could tie him to the back of the ship and drag him. Like — twenty, thirty feet behind?"

"I could try," Billy offered, looking much less worn now as Teddy offered his hand to help him up. "My spells don't cross dimensions... I think."

"No magic unless you're sure," Logan said. "Or you'll be sending me to hell to hunt him down, and I'll make you go with me."

Billy looked down at his feet. "Maybe not then," he said quietly. "I mean, normally I'd be sure — but not today."

"You _are_ Avengers, right?" Jubilee said. "Why not put a spell on him to keep him out until he wakes up in the sand? You can have your team transport him."

Billy glanced at Teddy and then nodded. "Okay — nobody say anything or think anything too hard about hell or anything that could go wrong," he said. He closed his eyes and held out a hand and took probably longer than necessary to take a deep breath. " _Asleepuntilyougettotheisland Asleepuntilyougettotheisland Asleepuntilyougettotheisland._ " He peeked one eye open as Azazel's head drooped into the dirt. "Oh, good. It worked. I was worried."

The group waited, and Logan didn't let go of Azazel until he was securely cuffed six ways to Sunday and the crew came to haul him off.


	7. Buncha Untrained Kids

**Notes: Yeah... Logan and Kurt needed the chance to fight some things. They've been babysitting for so long, they needed the break ;) We're excited about this chapter, too, because … well… for those of you that have been wondering about plans, lots and lots o things come together in this chapter. ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: "Buncha Untrained Kids"**

Once the Avengers had taken Azazel, and Strange had disappeared with Margali, it was finally time to head back to Westchester.

"Are you going to be able to get back to your ship alright, Noh?" Teddy asked once they were relaxed enough to fall into a bit of conversation on the way. "I mean, it's still by the moon, right?"

Noh waved a hand. "I will find a ride up to the ship. It was more important to arrive here quickly to aid Nightcrawler and Wolverine." He gave Billy a significant look. "I'm simply glad we were able to make the trip in one piece."

Billy looked down at his hands. "Yeah. I … I should probably ask Doctor Strange to help me when we get to the mansion," he said quietly. "I've never had problems like this before."

"Problems like what before?" Logan asked. "Jubes said something, but I couldn't understand a damn thing she said, seein' as I was a little bit occupied."

Billy glanced at Jubilee and then Logan before he tried to explain. "Usually, when I cast a spell, I have to really _want_ it. But lately? I just have to think about it too hard, even if I don't want it. Like worrying about the ship not being there when we got done with the mission? Made it happen. And…" He looked back over his shoulder at Jubilee. "And we think maybe laughing about Kate being four and a half…. Made it happen."

"What?" Kurt said, turning to face Billy in a daze. "You — _you did this?_ "

Billy held up both hands quickly. "I didn't mean to, I swear!" he said. "I swear — I've always been really, _really_ careful about my magic, especially after last time I tried to mess with reality." He glanced at Teddy and then gulped in a breath. "I swear, I didn't mean to."

"This is why we push for the mutant kids to come to us," Logan growled out and scrubbed one hand over his face.

Billy looked miserably down at his hands again. "Yeah… I should probably… probably get some more training. Maybe with my mom or Doctor Strange or something."

"Just — don't beat yourself up," Logan told him. "Let's get back and figure out how the hell to fix it before you worry about who you're going to learn from."

"I… might be able to?" Billy offered. "I mean, I did something similar for Loki, aged him up a little…" He looked to Noh. "But that was kind of a different situation. He already had all his memories."

Logan and Kurt just stared at him for a moment, both of them with their arms crossed. "I can call the bamfs," Kurt said quietly. "No offense, Wiccan, but you're worn out, and we have to get back to Katie to _fix_ this."

"No offense taken," Billy said quickly. "I don't think I can even start to work up a spell until I've had a good night's sleep. Sorry."

"If recent history is any indicator, then the bamfs will be sugared up enough to get all of us back in one 'port," Kurt assured him. "And you can sleep then."

"I think we'd like to see Kate first," Teddy said, putting a hand on Billy's arm. "If that's alright with you."

Kurt looked to Logan, who nodded his head. "Hopefully we haven't been gone too long. She was a bit angry when we left." Kurt grinned their way almost wickedly at the prospect of the boys having to face an angry four-year-old version of their old teammate..

"So she hasn't changed too much," Teddy said with a small smile. "Still mad if you leave her behind."

"And tryingly stubborn," Noh added with a smirk.

"Can we just get outta here? I can't let her see all this blood or everyone's gonna be deaf from the screaming," Logan cut in.

"Yeah, you should definitely take a shower," Billy agreed. Unlike Teddy, it was clear he wasn't finding the humor in the situation, as he was still frowning with his hand on Teddy's covering his arm.. "Let's just …. get back and meet this… other Kate. We'll go from there."

"Katie," Kurt told them. "She prefers Katie for now."

Teddy and Billy looked at each other and then snorted. "Figures," they said.

"We'll see you in a little bit," Kurt promised. "I'm going to take Logan back and send the bamfs for you." With that, the two X-Men disappeared in a puff of smoke — and a few moments later, several little purple and blue puffs appeared around the forest as the bamfs simply grabbed hold of the remaining members of the group — at least an arm apiece — and teleported away again.

"That is still really weird," Billy said as he shook his head to clear the smoke when the four of them showed up on the front lawn of the mansion. It was just starting to get dark outside, and it looked like Spiderman was looking for something.

"Oh, hey! You're back from space!" Peter said, straightening up to wave at them, though he was still shuffling a few steps toward the edge of the driveway. "Good to see you — love to catch up — but I'm playing with Katie right now so — bye!" He ran off and seemed to resume his search further out toward the woods this time.

"Should we follow him or get a bite to eat first?" Jubilee said with her head tipped to the side a bit. "He seemed a little nervous. Even for him."

"I suppose we can always eat after we investigate our nervous spider friend," Noh said diplomatically.

"Hey, Spidey, wait up!" Teddy called out as they ran to catch up with him.

It was only another ten minutes or so before Logan came downstairs to find Kurt in the kitchen, cleaned up as well after the fight so neither of them would scare Katie. "Where're all the kids?" Logan asked. "I thought there'd still be screaming."

"They're all still outside," Kurt said, glancing out the window. "But I'm sure they'll come in soon. Katie doesn't like the dark."

Logan just nodded, and the two of them grabbed a quick bite — or planned to. That line of thought was quickly eighty-sixed when they saw Bobby zip past the window, fully iced up and looking more serious that Bobby had a right to ever look.

The two of them shared a look, and Kurt teleported them outside in an instant. "Bobby!" he called up to the passing X-Man. "Is something the matter?"

"You guys got back and they didn't tell you?" he asked, looking alarmed. "Katie wandered off. There was a pretty competitive game of hide and seek going on and … we can't find her."

Kurt just stared at him for a second, and Logan didn't even bother to stow the growl before they both took off, Logan on foot and Kurt and every one of his bamfs teleporting from one spot to the next. It didn't take any time at all once they were outside and looking for both of them to hear the kids shouting for her, though none of them sounded more panicked than Spidey.

Logan circled out around the mansion until he found a halfway strong scent trail and took off down it at a dead run, nearly bowling Teddy over as he zipped through the underbrush past the kid who seemed to have a similar idea and had shifted into an alien with a pretty strong sense of smell— though clearly not as good as Logan's.

The scent led Logan past where they'd had their campfire and through the little creek, and still Logan hadn't slowed down. He was totally in the zone as he stepped up his search. It seemed that she had tumbled down a little hill and scraped herself up at some point. It took him another fifteen minutes before he nearly blew past her trail entirely and had to backtrack just a bit, looking and sniffing around carefully before he finally spotted her.

She was sniffling softly with her knees drawn up under her chin and tears streaming down her face. Of course — for most of the searchers, she would have been all but invisible with the amount of dirt she had on her, and she was missing one shoe to top it off.

"Katie?" Logan called out gently. "Katie, are you alright?"

When she saw him, she let out a little whimper and crawled over to where he was to just hold her hands out for him to pick her up.

He scooped her up gently and snuggled her tight, one hand on her head while he made sure she had a good bear hug before he stood up again. "What happened? Did Spidey make you mad?"

She sniffled and shook her head. "No," she said very quietly. "I got lost."

At that, he gave her another good, tight squeeze. "No one's ever been able to hide from me for very long. Even if they did get lost," he told her with a quiet rumble.

"You were gone for a long time," she told him as she snuggled into his shoulder.

"I know. I'm sorry for that," he replied as he carried her out slowly, taking his time so she could calm down before they got to the rest of them. "What we thought was just a _kinda_ bad guy ended up being one of the _really_ bad ones."

She looked up at him with concern. "But you won, right?"

"Of course I did," he replied with a little smirk.

She snuggled into his shoulder again with a little smile. "That's 'cause you're the best," she told him matter-of-factly.

"That's right," he agreed. "And you know — your friend Spidey is scared out of his mind right now. Do you want to call him?"

She looked up at Logan. "Why is Spidey scared? Did he get lost too?"

"No, he's scared because he couldn't find you."

"Oh." She scrunched up her nose. "I didn't mean to scare him."

"Well he's probably gonna want a hug," he told her.

She giggled quietly and nodded. "He says Katie hugs are his favorite," she whispered.

"He's smart," he said with a little smile. "How about we get you inside so everyone can hug you until you're ready to hit them?"

She nodded, giggling at that. "Should I call Spidey? I can shout really loud."

He pulled his phone out after he put her on his hip. "I thought a little quieter might be good. He might have a heart attack if you shout for him right now. Or run into a tree face-first."

She laughed at that and nodded solemnly, holding her hand out for the phone. "Okay. No scaring Spidey. Not right now."

He found the number and hit the button for her, and they waited on a rock for Spidey to answer — frazzled and nervous. As soon as he heard Pete's voice on the other end, he handed the phone to Katie, who gave him a little thumbs up before she put the phone up to her ear. "Hi, Spidey," she said. "I'm really, really sorry I scared you. Please don't run into a tree."

"Katie!" he half-shouted back before he dissolved into a fit of nervous laughter. "You're okay! I mean — so. Logan found you then? Are you hurt? Hungry? Thirsty? Oh man."

She looked over at Logan and covered the phone with one hand. "He's okay. He didn't have a heart attack," she reported solemnly.

"Good," Logan said quietly. "Tell him we're headed up now."

She nodded and took her hand off the phone. "Mr. Logan is bringing me back. We can eat food and …" She looked down at herself. "And I think I need a Band-Aid. I scraped my knee, but it doesn't hurt anymore."

"Okay. I'll - I'll have Dr. Fuzzy-and-blue meet you with a Band-aid and a Twinkie."

She giggled. "You're not supposed to have Twinkies before dinner, silly," she told him.

"I'm pretty sure will say it's okay," Peter said. "Just this once."

She looked over at Logan with wide eyes. "Is it okay if I have a Twinkie?" she asked.

"If that's what you want," Logan agreed with a nod. "And you promise to eat the other stuff."

"As long as it's not macaroni and cheese," she said.

"If it's macaroni and cheese, I'll make you something myself," Logan promised.

"Okay," she said. "Then I promise to eat the other stuff." She started to wiggle a little. "I can walk."

"Let me get you past the creek first," he told her. "The rocks are slippery in the dark."

"That's not how I skinned my knee," she told him. "I tripped and I lost my brand new shoe," she added with an obvious pout.

"I know. It was on the hill on the way down, right?" he asked.

She nodded. "I wanted to find Spidey. I'm done hiding," she explained. "But I forgot which way the mansion was."

"Well it's a big place out here. If you went much further, you would have hit the wall that goes by the road," he said as he stepped through the little creek and set her down on the other side. She brushed herself off and grabbed a hold of his hand as he led her through the nearly pitch darkness.

At the edge of the forest, Kurt teleported not far away and rushed over to her, looking her over carefully. "What happened?" His forehead was lined with worry, and he was out of breath from the frantic searching he'd been doing. The bamfs had appeared close behind him, all of them looking worried as some of them had their hands clasped in front of them and others were still pacing circles in the air as they came back down from their panic.

She looked up at Logan and then let go of his hand to run over and give Kurt a very big hug. "I got lost," she told him as she held him tightly around the knees. "Mr. Logan found me."

Kurt grinned at her. "No one in the world finds people like Logan does," he told her gently.

"He's the very best," she agreed. She looked up at him with wide eyes. "Are you okay? Mr. Logan said you were fighting really, really bad guys and that's why you were gone all day."

"We weren't expecting who we found at all, and they were very, very bad," Kurt agreed. "But I'll be just fine, don't worry."

She just kept staring up at him with wide eyes. "You need a Band-Aid too," she told him very seriously.

Kurt chuckled a little bit. "Band-aids don't work well with fur, _kuken_ ," Kurt smiled warmly at her for a moment as he looked her over and pulled a little twig out of her hair.

"Well, you should at least get a Twinkie with me," she said. "Maybe Dr. Fuzzy knows how to do fuzzy Band-Aids."

"If anyone does, it's him," Kurt agreed. "Would you like to 'port there?"

She giggled and nodded. "I like 'porting," she said in a whisper. "It tickles my tummy."

Kurt looked up at Logan for a moment. "See you inside, _mein Freund,_ " Kurt said before he offered Kate his hand and teleported them to the lab.

Logan took the opportunity, now that Katie was safe, to light up a cigar and leisurely stroll up to the house while the bulk of the mansion was fussing over the little Katie. At least he was reasonably sure that she wouldn't miss him for a little while.

By the time Logan got inside and Katie had come down for dinner, she was still holding Kurt's hand and happily skipping, the terror of being lost completely gone now that she had a Twinkie and a Band-Aid. She climbed up into a chair for dinner, and it was only then that she noticed Billy and Teddy, and she immediately became shy again, scooting closer to Kurt as she regarded the two newcomers with a wary expression.

"Katie!" Jubilee stage whispered. "Katie! I brought some friends!" She was pointing at Billy and Teddy with a broad smile.

Katie opened and closed her hand. "Hi," she said, still sticking close to Kurt.

"Hi, Katie," Teddy said with a warm smile. "Jubilee has told us about the fireflies you caught for your night light."

Katie nodded shyly. "Jubes makes really big light shows too. They're loud, but they're not really scary," she told him, and Teddy just grinned broadly.

"She's pretty great," Teddy agreed. He leaned forward with a little wink. "Later, maybe I can show you my superpower. I can look like anybody if I think about it really hard," he whispered to her.

She nodded at that. "Are you an X-Man too?" she asked. "There's a _lot_ of them."

Teddy laughed and shook his head. "No. I'm an Avenger," he explained. "I'm Teddy, and this is Billy," he said, draping an arm over Billy's shoulders while the former Young Avenger seemed completely unable to stop just… _staring_ at Kate.

She giggled when she saw Billy and then turned her attention back to Teddy. "Does he talk?" she asked in what she probably thought was a whisper.

Teddy snorted out a laugh. "Usually, we can't get him to _stop_ talking," he said. "He's just very shy right now. He's scared you won't be his friend."

Katie frowned at that. "I'm not scary," she promised Billy. "You can be my friend if you want to."

Billy nodded and managed a ghost of a smile. "I'd like that, thanks," he said, and Kate just beamed at him — and it wasn't long at all before she was happily recounting all her adventures with the X-Men to the two boys as they ate dinner together, with the bamfs happily assisting her in her storytelling as they acted out bits of her story for her.

After dinner, Storm took Katie upstairs for a bath — since she was, as usual, wearing more food than she ate — and as soon as Katie was gone, Billy leaned over the table to look Kurt square in the eyes. "I swear, I'm going to fix this," he said sincerely. "I'll get her back."

"Yes," Kurt said evenly and without any trace of his usual good humor as he met Billy's gaze. "Yes you will."

Billy swallowed and just nodded again, falling completely silent and looking down at his hands.

* * *

The next morning, Katie woke up just after the sun came up and came bounding into Logan's room, dragging her little stuffed bamf along behind her as she crawled up onto his bed and started to bounce up and down. "Wake up, sleepy!" she half-shouted.

Logan cracked open a tired eye to peek at the clock on the bedside table. "Go back to bed; it's too early."

She bounced up and down again. "Nu-uh," she said determinedly. "The sun is awake! We gotta do things!" She climbed down and started to circle around to the other side of the bed to try and get in his face but got distracted by the swords hanging in his room. "Oooh. What're those? Why do you have _those_? Can I use them? Are they _real_?"

Logan looked up to see what she was jabbering about. "Don't worry about all that," he told her.

"Are they swords for fighting bad guys?" she pressed him. "Can I fight bad guys? I wanna fight bad guys. Mr. Noh says you're good at swords — can you teach me?"

He finally rolled onto his back and looked up at her after the barrage of questions. "Yes, they're swords. Yes, they're real; no, you can't use them; and yes, they're for fighting bad guys." He sat up and looked at her squarely. "You can't touch 'em because you're not a samurai." He took a breath and let it out slowly. "But if you want to fight bad guys, I maybe could teach you something."

She giggled and nodded. "Yes, please! I wanna be a sam-rye!"

He couldn't help but smirk her way. "Go to your room — so I can get changed."

She nodded and skipped out of the room, but before she closed the door, she paused to point her finger at him. "No going back to sleep," she told him. "You gotta show me how to be a sam-rye."

"First rule is you don't wake up your teacher," he teased. "I'll come get you in a few minutes."

"Okay!" she said brightly and then skipped off, humming to herself again.

She was just about to go back to his room tell him to get up again — since, according to Katie, he was taking _way_ too long — when he finally stepped out of his room and offered her his hand. "You ready for cereal?"

She nodded and grabbed his hand with the one that wasn't still holding onto her bamf doll. "Are you gonna have Froot Loops too?"

"I'm gonna have coffee," he told her. "And I'll see if I feel like anything else."

She scrunched up her nose. "Coffee smells funny," she told him.

"Only because you've got your face buried in a bowl of Froot Loops."

"And sometimes Pop-Tarts," she told him brightly. He didn't argue with her and instead just took her to the kitchen and poured her the cereal after he started a pot of coffee. She cheerfully hummed and ate, kicking her feet and wiggling in her seat.

Logan had finally gotten into his morning paper and was on his second cup when the front door opened, and a small group wandered in. "Told you he'd have coffee ready," Scott told Annie with a smirk as he set the suitcases down and tipped his head toward the kitchen.

Logan looked up and just tipped his chin Scott's way before raising his mug as a silent welcome. "Better part of a pot; it's not too old," Logan rumbled.

"Oh, thank goodness," Annie said with a sigh as she headed right for the coffee pot. "That flight was way too early for thinkin' people," she said with a teasing look Scott's way as she filled herself a cup. She had just taken her first sip when she saw Katie, who was very still and quiet and had gone back to being shy again, just watching Annie carefully and no longer eating her Froot Loops. "Well, hello," she said in a sweet 'teacher' voice. "And what's your name?"

Katie looked over at Logan, who tipped his head slightly Annie's way, and then looked down at her cereal. "Katie," she said quietly, her ankles crossed beneath her.

Annie smiled sweetly and slid into the seat across from her. "And who do you belong to, sweetie pie?" she asked. "Do you have a big brother or sister at the school? Or do your parents teach here?"

Katie looked up and shook her head. "I'm staying with Mr. Logan," she said. "He's taking care of me while my dad's working."

Annie looked over at Logan for a moment, but he didn't offer any further explanation, instead just looking right back at her, his head in his hand as he read his paper and kept sipping at his coffee.

Scott had watched the little discussion from the coffee pot and just looked between Logan and the purple-clad, bamf-doll-dragging Katie for a moment. "Katie, huh?" Scott asked. Logan met his gaze and just very slowly nodded.

"Are you friends with the X-Men too?" Katie asked shyly as she finally looked at Scott.

"He's the very first X-Man, kiddo," Logan told her before Scott could answer.

Her little eyes widened. "Really?"

Scott nodded and smirked slightly. "Yep," he replied. "Are you thinking about joining the team when you get a little bit taller?"

She giggled and grinned and nodded. "Mr. Logan's gonna teach me how to be a sam-rye," she explained. "Just in case I don't get superpowers when I grow up."

"Wow," Scott said as he leaned on the counter. "He must like you. He never taught _me_ that."

"Really?" Katie leaned forward to meet him. "You must have superpowers then," she decided. "Because then you don't _need_ it like I do." She gestured down at herself. "I'm really little."

"So's ," Scott teased.

She shook her head. "No he's not," she said. "He's really big and scares the bad guys away, huh, Mr. Logan?"

"Sometimes," Logan agreed.

"Because sometimes good guys have to be scary enough to scare the bad guys," Katie recited with a little nod.

"Is that what he told you after he beat someone up?" Scott asked, a frown evident in his voice even if he'd schooled his expression in front of the little girl..

She shook her head. "No," she said seriously. "When he beat up bad guys, he told me to close my eyes. And I always listen to guardbodies when bad guys come. It's _important_."

The two of them stared openly at Logan for a moment until he glanced their way and shrugged. "It's a long story," he said quietly. "I'll explain it later. But it involves one of Wanda's kids."

Now that she'd seen Logan talking with them, Katie was starting to relax around Scott and Annie and launched into her own little retelling of how Mr. Logan had rescued her from the forest in the dark the night before after she skinned her knee. "And I got a Band-Aid and a Twinkie," she said, insisting that Scott and Annie both see her knee before she told them about Mr. Nightcrawler and how he didn't get Band-Aids and wasn't that very sad?

"None of _that_ would have happened if we hadn't gone to shake down Margali yesterday," Logan told Scott. "It's been a long week."

"I thought you said one of Wanda's kids was the cause of all this," Scott said with a little frown.

"We didn't know that until I was neck deep with the big red Elf," Logan told him before he let out a sigh. "It's been a very, _very_ long week."

Annie looked between Scott and Logan for a moment before she reached out a hand to Katie. "Katie, do you think you could show me around?" she asked, though she gave Scott a significant look as it was clear she was getting the little girl out of the way so they could chat more easily about just what was going on here. "I'm not an X-Man, and I think I need a pretty helper like you."

"Don't wander off until you clean up," Logan warned Katie.

Katie nodded and hopped down from her seat before she pushed a chair over to the sink to wash her hands, humming the whole time. As soon as she was more or less clean, though now very wet, she hopped back down to take Annie's hand. "I played hide and seek with Spidey yesterday, so I know _all_ the best places," she announced proudly as Annie made impressed noises and Katie led her out of the kitchen.

As soon as the door closed behind the girls, Scott sat down at the table across from Logan and waited a long moment before he asked, "Is it reversible?"

"I sure as hell hope so," Logan replied. "Wiccan thinks he can do it; Strange is going to coach him until he's ready to try. Probably he and 'yana will guide him if they can. Until then, just ... trying to keep her out of trouble."

"And they put you on the trouble patrol?" Scott asked with a smirk.

"Ah - no. She picked me. When it happened, we were in Madripoor gutting ninjas."

"Well, at least she didn't pick any ninjas," Scott said, the smirk widening.

"If she had, they'd be regretting their life choices by now," he replied with a little laugh. "She was eyeballin' my katana this mornin'."

"I gathered that much when she said you were going to train her," Scott said, shaking his head.

"Just a shame the closest one to her in age is Parker — and that's just mental," Logan said, still smirking the slightest bit before he let out a breath and looked Scott's way. "She keeps wanting to go home to her dad," he said quietly.

"Ah." Scott nodded with a little frown. "And… you've been able to put her off so far?"

"Skin of my teeth." Logan scrubbed his hand over his face.

"Maybe it'll help when Leslie Ann and Mary Beth finish unpacking their things at their new house," Scott suggested. "They're closer to her age. Leslie's six."

"New house?" Logan asked. "I didn't realize the whole crew was relocating for sure."

Scott nodded. "As soon as Annie told her sister she was moving out of Alaska, Rachel was _more_ than happy to follow her." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Apparently, Southern girls don't do well in the snow — or so I've been told. Repeatedly."

"I'm sure you have," Logan laughed.

"I told the girls I'd bring them up to see the mansion later today. I'm sure they'd love to play with Katie if she's still ... this small," Scott offered.

"I think for the time being, that's a pretty safe bet," Logan told him.

Scott nodded and fell silent for a moment, letting Logan get back to his newspaper as the two drank their coffee before he asked, "How's Kurt?"

"Missing her." Logan replied honestly. "He never would have jumped to go see Margali otherwise."

"That's true," Scott agreed quietly. He looked up at Logan. "How long has this been going on?"

Logan's expression softened a bit as he had to think it over. "Not that damn long, but it's been non-stop trouble. Maybe ... four, five days? We've had a kidnapping attempt and all the crap yesterday, otherwise just stupid kid stuff, really."

"With a girl that age, it's non-stop trouble even without the kidnapping attempt," Scott said, smiling despite himself.

"Wasn't really until yesterday that she's allowed other people to stick around her alone."

"Shy?" Scott asked.

"You saw her — that was mild," Logan agreed.

Scott nodded thoughtfully. "That's a change from the one we know." Logan just nodded and held up one hand for a moment as he listened.

"They're coming back."

Sure enough, Katie and Annie came bursting back through the kitchen doors a few moments later, and Katie ran right to the seat she had been occupying, where she hugged the little bamf doll she'd accidentally left behind close to her chest. Annie followed behind her with a little smile. "Katie is very good at storytelling," she told Scott. "She has stories for almost every room in the house."

"I showed Miss Annie where Spidey let me walk on the _ceiling_ ," Katie told Logan with a grin. "And we didn't even leave any footprints!"

"That's what happens when you play with the wall crawler," Logan agreed.

She tugged on Logan's arm until he made room so she could crawl up in his lap. "Miss Annie says she's moving into the house," she said. "She's gonna teach lots of kids. Did you know that?"

"I did," Logan said with a nod. "We teach kids here, but most of them are older than you."

"When I get big enough, maybe Daddy will let me go here," Katie said with a determined nod.

"You might go here now, if you'd like," Logan stage whispered. "We can make exceptions for really good kids."

Katie's eyes got even wider, and she clapped her hands delightedly. "Ooh, yes please! Please — I'll be really good. I'll eat all my food and — and — and I'll never ever get lost again or scare anybody or anything!"

"We'll have to just see how it goes, but if Scott and Mr. Nightcrawler are okay with it, so am I," he told her.

Kate turned the force of her best, biggest eyes to Scott. "Oh please, Mr. Scott. Please, please, _please_ can I go here? I'll be really good! I already know all my letters and everything."

Scott just grinned back at her, unable not to smile in the face of the adorable little Hawkeye. "Yeah, I mean — you've been really good for Annie, haven't you?"

She nodded. "Mmhmm," she said. "Really, really good. Pretty please can I go here?"

"I think you'd be happier here than just about anywhere else," Scott said, still with a little grin as he looked her over. "And — I could maybe use your help later with a tour."

She giggled and nodded. "Yes. Okay! I'll tell you all sorts of stories if you want. Miss Annie said she liked the stories." She wriggled down off of Logan's lap so she could more properly bounce in place, her little hands clasped together in pure joy.. "Thank you, Mr. Scott! I'll be really good — you'll see!"


	8. One Nervous Wiccan

**Notes: Yeah, Margali is… an interesting character to say the least. Poor Kurt has a horrible family. But thankfully, she's not behind this. It's just poor Billy unable to control his new powers. Bless his soul.**

* * *

 **Chapter 8: "One Nervous Wiccan"**

* * *

When Strange and Ilyanna arrived that afternoon, it was to find not one but _three_ little girls running around the living room of the mansion, each holding a little bamf doll and shouting "bamf" at the top of their lungs as they jumped from one place to the next pretending to teleport around — and occasionally being teleported by real bamfs, who seemed totally entertained by the game and were joining in the jumping around and shouting their favorite word. Occasionally, Kurt would call out to one of them to be careful or not jump from anything too tall, but otherwise, the girls seemed to have the run of the living room, if not the mansion as a whole.

Scott had been the one to answer the door when the two magic makers arrived, with Billy scrambling down the stairs to be there too with a look of anxiety plainly written across his face. Ilyanna, of course, wrapped Scott in a hug as soon as she saw him, and after Strange shook his hand as well, the two magic users turned to Billy, who turned visibly pink at their attention and just sort of waved at them.

"I'm really, really sorry I caused so much trouble," Billy started out sincerely.

Strange approached him with a broad, understanding smile. "These things can happen with less experienced casters," he told him. "Of course, we have much to discuss before we start."

Billy nodded. "Yeah. Yeah. Anything you want to know," he said quickly.

"It's more to what _you_ should know," Strange replied. He lost a bit of the warm smile as he looked over the young man for a moment. "Are you aware that your abilities are expanding at an exponential rate?"

Billy grinned sheepishly. "Um - well, it's been easier to cast spells lately," he said. "But… I guess… with the whole…" He leaned forward and whispered, "With the whole Demiurge thing? I always figured it would happen."

"You need to learn to focus your mind before you have another accident," Strange told him. "The first time — you were lucky. This time has yet to be determined."

Billy nodded. "Just tell me what I need to do to get Kate back to normal," he said. "And I'll do it, whatever it is."

"It's not just about getting her back — but making sure you keep your abilities in check at _all_ times so this doesn't happen again," Strange said with one eyebrow raised at Billy.

"Yes, sir," Billy said quietly. He took a deep breath and gestured for Strange and Ilyanna to follow him, though he paused and glanced at Scott. "I thought maybe we could go somewhere like — a study or something? Somewhere the kids won't go?"

Scott nodded and led the way to Charles' old office. "This should do," he told them as he gestured at the empty room, though he stopped short of entering it himself, standing just outside the door. "It's the quietest spot in the house, and no one will walk in."

"Thanks, Cyclops," Billy said earnestly, obviously still nervous as he shifted from one foot to the other.

"You'll do fine," Scott told him as he rested his hand on Billy's shoulder for a moment. "Just focus and listen to Strange. You got this."

…..

The screaming and giggling had quieted down for lunchtime as all three little girls filed in to have sandwiches made by Leslie Ann's mom — because "they are the best PB&J's ever, Katie!" And even though Katie laughed at them because they didn't make their own sandwiches, she had to admit that it _was_ very yummy.

As the other X-Men came down to the kitchen to get their food, the girls all but tumbled out into the halls and met Logan on the way. He had grease on his hands and arms, and Katie giggled delightedly. "Were you working on your bike again?" she asked.

"How'd you guess?" he asked with a little wink.

She giggled. "You have motorcycle goop _all over_!" she informed him, gesturing at his hands before she turned to see that Leslie Ann and Mary Beth were looking at her strangely. "Oooh, Mr. Logan, have you met my new friends?"

"Katie," Leslie Ann said, wrinkling her nose, "that's _Wolverine_ , not Mr. Logan."

Katie shook her head and put a finger to her lips. "Shh!" she said insistently. "Nobody's supposed to know. It's a _secret_! That's his other name!"

"She's right, girls," Logan told them as he started the water in the kitchen sink, where they had followed him. "That's like calling Scott 'Cyclops' all the time."

Leslie Ann nodded with her eyes wide. "Oh, yeah. We don't do that," she agreed, and Mary Beth nodded enthusiastically beside her.

"Mr. Logan is a superhero," Katie told her new friends proudly. "He's the best."

"Shh, it secwet," Mary Beth said, putting one chubby finger up to her lips the way Katie had done earlier, and Katie giggled and nodded and put her hands over her mouth.

"What are you girls up to?" Logan asked, scrubbing the last of the grease and dirt off his arms.

"Miss Rachel — you know, the one without all the spikey things on her shoulders? — she made sandwiches for lunch!" Katie told him. "They were really yummy, and she cuts off the crusts in a _circle_."

"Sounds like a neat trick," Logan said with a smirk, watching the girls dance in place. " _Now_ what are you up to?"

"Bobby said he'd have a water fight with us," Katie explained, and Leslie Ann giggled with delight.

"He's my _favorite_ ," she told Logan.

"I remember," Logan said with a nod.

"Well, _my_ favorite is Mr. Logan," Katie said in the tone of someone who had argued the point before. "He's the best, and he's really, really cool."

"You just say that because I took you for a ride on the Harley," Logan told her with a little frown.

She shook her head. "Nu-uh," she insisted as she bounced around and tried to grab his hand. "You're my favorite 'cause I _said so._ "

"You got to ride on a motorcycle?" Leslie Ann asked with wide eyes, seemingly unable to wrap her mind around something so cool.

Katie nodded and looked proud of herself. "It was really loud," she told the other girls. "Mr. Nightcrawler had to get earplugs for me."

"Was it scawy?" Mary Beth asked, very quietly.

Kate shook her head. "Only a little bit," she said, very seriously. "But I had Mr. Logan with me."

"That doesn't sound scary at all," Leslie Ann agreed.

"Nope!" Katie giggled. "Mr. Logan isn't scary — at all! He only scares bad guys!"

"So where are you girls headed, or do I need to have Bobby start a snowball fight with you?" Logan asked when the girls had thoroughly concluded that there was nothing to be scared of with him at all.

"Water fight, silly!" Leslie Ann corrected him. "We're gonna get water guns."

"Snowball fights are more fun in the summer," Logan pointed out.

Katie stuck her tongue out at him. "No - snowball fights are for _Christmas_."

"Not when you have Iceman in the house," Logan told her. "Snowball fights are for any time."

"That's true, Katie," Leslie Ann told her with a big grin. "It can be Christmas whenever we want if we ask really nice."

Logan crouched down so he was eye level with the three girls. "You don't have to ask him that nice," he said quietly, as if it was a secret. "Bobby likes to show off, so he'll do it even if you forget all the pleases and the eyelash batting."

Leslie Ann giggled impishly, but Katie looked wide-eyed. "But you _gotta_ say please and thank you!" she protested.

"You should, yeah," he agreed. "But — I'm just telling you that so you know you can get it. He'd probably bring snowballs into the water fight anyhow. Might take you sledding if you ask nicely."

"Oooh, I love sledding!" Leslie Ann declared. "Uncle Scott can get us to go really, really fast!"

"I'll bet he can," Logan agreed before he gestured down the hall. "You girls can find Bobby down in the game room. He was playing pool with Spidey a little while ago, and Spidey is really good to get in a snowball fight too. You should take him with."

Katie bounced a little bit on the balls of her feet. "Spidey says Storm is the best in a water fight," she announced. "Does she play snowballs too?"

"She plays in snow. But she doesn't like snowballs," Logan said. "She doesn't like throwing."

"Maybe she's not good at it yet," Katie suggested helpfully before she admitted in a sheepish whisper, "I can't hit anything either."

"She just doesn't like throwing things at _people_ ," Logan told her. "She doesn't think it's nice."

"Well," Leslie Ann said, shifting a little bit. "It's not very nice to throw things. But it's okay if it's _snowballs_."

"It's okay if they know what's going on," Logan said. "Still not nice to hit someone that's not playing."

All three girls shook their heads seriously as they agreed with him. "No, only hit people who are playing," Leslie Ann agreed.

"Are _you_ gonna play with us?" Katie asked.

Logan shook his head. "No. You'll have Bobby and Spidey. That's plenty for a good fight."

"But if we have _you_ , then we'll _win_ ," Katie pointed out with a bit of a pout. "It could be us against Spidey and Bobby!"

"But that would be cheating, wouldn't it?" Logan asked.

Katie giggled and shook her head. "No," she said, still giggling. "You're a _secret weapon_. That's not cheating!"

Logan looked to the other two little girls to gauge their reactions. They were both nodding excitedly, though Leslie Ann leaned over to him to whisper, "It's cheating a _little_ bit. But Katie and Mary Beth are _little,_ so sometimes you gotta help with someone bigger."

"I tell you what," Logan said. "You guys go ahead and play. I'll watch where they can't see me. If you're losing — I'll help. That's how secret weapons work."

"That's true," Leslie Ann told Katie very seriously. "It's not a secret if they _know_ he's on our side."

Katie seemed to consider this for a while before, at last, she nodded. "Okay," she agreed. "You can be super, super secret."

"Alright, I'll watch. Go. Play."

…...

Katie had whined a little bit when Annie's nieces went home for the night before dinner, because she had been obviously enjoying herself having friends that were closer to her age. But then Peter had asked her if she wanted to know a secret, and of course, she couldn't possibly resist.

"Did you know Mr. Nightcrawler can walk on the ceiling like I can?" he whispered.

Katie's eyes widened, and she shook her head. "Does he give piggyback rides like you do?" she whispered right back, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

"You should ask him," Peter suggested. "But we have to eat dinner first. We can't walk on the ceiling while we're eating!"

Katie nodded her understanding at that, giggling, and just climbed up into her seat, promising to eat everything on her plate to prove that she was being "really good" so that she could get piggyback rides.

Which meant, of course, that as soon as she'd scarfed down her food, she jumped down out of her chair and tugged on Kurt's sleeve, regardless of whether or not _he_ was done eating. "Spidey says you can walk on the _ceiling_ ," she said with wide eyes, and Kurt just broke into a little grin.

"Yes, I can. Would you like to see?" he offered, and as soon as she started giggling, he knew that was a 'yes.' He grinned widely at her and teleported away from the table, reappearing over her head and waving down at her as she broke into another round of giggles.

"I want to walk on the ceiling!" she announced, holding her hands up for him to pick her up, and he dropped down to the floor to land in front of her with a chuckle.

"Are you sure?" he teased, booping her on the nose as she broke into more laughter.

"Please! Pretty please!"

Kurt laughed and picked Katie up as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Don't drop me," she told him sternly, and he nodded.

"I would never let you fall," he promised, and she just giggled and nodded at that.

Kurt took her through several rooms in the mansion as she excitedly told him stories — "That's where I scared Spidey because he thought I was a ghost!" — and he supplied a few of his own — "And here is where Bobby accidentally broke his chalkboard his first day teaching. To this day, we still don't know _how_."

Eventually, though, Katie started to turn a bit pink from all the blood rushing to her head, even if Kurt tried to keep her right-side-up as much as possible, and Kurt set her back down on the ground, giggling, so that she could reorient herself.

Kurt was still standing on the ceiling, grinning at her upside down as she came down from the giggle fit, and when she looked up at him, she burst into giggles again. "Let's do it again!" she declared, which only got Kurt grinning wider.

"Shall I take you back to the others, _Kuken_?" he offered, and she nodded, holding up her arms to be picked up again.

This time, Kurt didn't bamf down or drop down to get her — instead, Katie burst into surprised and delighted giggles when his tail wrapped around her under the arms to pick her up to his level, and for a few steps, he simply walked around with her in his tail, pretending not to be able to reach her. He'd bring her up nearly close enough that he could boop her nose, and then he would lower her again, and she'd burst into a fresh round of laughter.

They were on their way back to the others when they passed Scott and Annie as they came back in the mansion from dropping off Leslie Ann and Mary Beth. Katie couldn't stop laughing as Kurt let her down just far enough that she could look at them both upside down and wave delightedly. "Hi, Mr. Scott! Hi, Miss Annie!" she said through her giggles.

"Hi Katie," Scott said with a smile. "Are you having a nice walk?"

She nodded and giggled again. "Everything looks different upside down," she told him. "It's really funny!" She reached up and floofed her hair as it was hanging down above her. "See?"

Annie smiled at her and reached over to floof Katie's hair as well. "Are upside down tours more fun than the ones you give?" she teased.

Katie looked very thoughtful for a moment, her face scrunched up in concentration. "Different kind of fun," she decided at last.

Kurt pulled Katie back up and then somersaulted down to the floor, with Katie squealing with delight the whole time, before he grinned at Scott and Annie. "We were just getting back to the others," he explained. The hopeful tone in his voice was clear as he added, "Everyone is nearly finished with dinner, and Wiccan would like to try and apply what he's learned."

"I'm going to guess this is a fairly closed session," Scott said, the smile slipping a bit.

"I would assume as much," Kurt agreed as Katie climbed down so she could walk on her own.

"Tell me when you're ready to start, I'd like to stay close, if there aren't any objections."

Kurt nodded his agreement as Katie tugged on Annie's sleeve. "You gotta eat food," she told Annie seriously. "Everybody else cleaned their plates, and you gotta join the Clean Plate Club!"

"We already ate with Leslie Ann and Mary Beth," Annie explained kindly. "But maybe later we can have dessert."

Katie beamed and nodded. "We have lots of candy! Jubes has a whole lot of it hidden just for me!" She bounced on her feet. "But maybe if we ask her really nice, she'll let you have some too."

"That would be very nice of her," Annie agreed as she let Katie led her back toward the kitchen, with Scott and Kurt following close behind and talking in quiet tones about the spell, about Strange, and about Wiccan.

When they arrived, most of the X-Men had left to give them some privacy for the spell, though Logan was still there, sitting quietly with an increasingly nervous-looking Billy, who only looked more terrified when Katie walked in.

It was pretty clear to Scott that they'd missed the tail end of one of Logan's 'pep talks'.

"Hey Katie, you remember Billy, right?" Logan called out, his focus never wavering from Billy.

Katie nodded and waved at Billy. "Are you still scared of me?" she asked, wide-eyed.

"He's having a really hard day, Katie. Think you could give him a hug? Cheer him up a little bit?"

Billy shot Logan a look, but it did absolutely nothing to deter the little girl who skipped right over to climb up in his lap and hug the stuffing out of him. When she finally let go of him, she giggled and booped his nose, very carefully, with one finger. "You shouldn't be sad," she told him. "I'm not scary!"

Billy shook his head with a weak smile. "No, you're not," he said, but he was looking past her at Kurt until she booped his nose again to get his attention.

"Do you want to play?" she asked him. "Playing always helps me feel not sad. You can share my toys if you want. I'm good at sharing."

"Maybe later," Billy said quietly. He glanced over at Logan in a silent plea for help as he added, "Right now, I'm getting ready to do a magic trick."

Katie giggled with delight. "I like magic tricks!" she said. "Gamble showed me some really cool magic tricks with cards, but I don't think I can do them like he does."

"Well, this one's _really_ hard to do, and I'm scared I'll mess it up," Billy admitted.

She wriggled around until she was right in his face. "It's okay, Billy," she told him seriously. "My dance teacher says sometimes you mess up, but it's okay, because that just means you're learning."

Billy glanced over at Logan for just a moment before he looked back at Katie, swallowed, and nodded. "Yeah. You're right," he said, and he even managed a little smile at her and gave her a quick hug, though the adults in the room could see he was still a little pale.

She nodded seriously and then climbed back down out of his lap to go tug on Logan's sleeve. "Are we gonna play now?" she asked him. "We should play."

"I think we need to stick around for Billy," Logan told her. "But if you want to play in a little while, we can."

She thought it over for a while and then nodded. "Okay. We can do that too," she said. She looked over to Billy. "Are you gonna stay in the kitchen all day? You should do your magic trick somewhere else. We _eat_ here."

"What about the living room?" Kurt suggested Katie's way, and she nodded and grabbed Billy's hand to try and pull him behind her.

"C'mon, Billy," said the determined little tour guide. "I can show you how to get there!"

With that, Katie led Billy to the living room and ordered him to sit on the couch so she could climb up beside him, with the other adults not far behind watching the entire thing with little smirks as Katie told Billy how it was going to be.

"You'll do really good, Billy," she said as she kicked her feet beside him. "If you practice really hard, maybe you can pull a quarter out of my ear!" She giggled at that and leaned over to whisper, "I had a guardbody who could do that one time. He was my favorite besides Mr. Logan."

Billy gave her a weak kind of smile and then glanced over at Kurt and Logan before he muttered something under his breath, reached behind Katie's ear, and handed her a shiny new quarter. "Like that?" he asked, and she giggled with delight.

"See? You're really good already!" Katie told him, and Billy gave her a genuine smile at that.

Katie then launched into telling Billy stories about some of the other guardbodies she'd had — a surprisingly large amount, considering her age — before Strange and Ilyanna slipped into the room as well. Katie had been so engrossed in her storytelling that she didn't notice at first, but when she did see Strange, she stopped babbling and just sort of watched him with a frown on her face.

But Strange tried to give her a kind, weary sort of smile in an attempt to reassure her. "How are you today, Katie?" Strange asked in his best gentle voice.

She kept frowning at him as she shrugged. "I'm okay," she said quietly. "I'm cheering up Billy."

"That's good, he's been very hard on himself lately," Strange told her. "But I think he's just nervous."

Katie looked over at Billy and gave him a little smile. "He's gonna show me a magic trick, aren't you, Billy?"

"Yeah," Billy agreed, very softly. He took a deep breath and looked over at Strange. "Yeah, I'm going to show you a magic trick."

As Strange sat down in a chair close to the couch where Katie and Billy were sitting, Katie looked over her shoulder at Logan, who just sat down carefully on the other side of her, where he could be within reach as Billy turned to face her.

"Katie, is it alright if I hold your hand?" he asked. "This magic trick is easier if I can hold your hand, but you don't have to."

"Will you be less scared?" she asked, her gaze on Strange.

Billy nodded. "Yeah, I think so," he replied, and she just nodded and gave him her hand to hold.

As soon as Billy had a good hold of her hand, he shifted to face her better and then took a deep breath and closed his eyes, chanting Kate's name over and over again in a low whisper as his hands started to glow.

Katie let out a bit of a whimper when the light around his hands traveled up her arms and seemed to envelope her, and she clearly started to try and get the energy off of her as she kicked at it and tried to rub it off with her hands until she just closed her eyes and curled up in a little ball, unable to stop the spread. The light surrounding the two of them just seemed to get brighter and brighter, and when Kate cried out, for just a moment, it wasn't the tiny, little-kid scream that they'd gotten used to.

Billy peeked one eye open to see that it looked like Katie was quickly growing — he could see his friend in the middle of the steadily brightening light, the correctly-aged Kate curled in a ball as her younger self had been. The sight encouraged him, as he could see that the spell was, in fact, working, and he closed his eyes again, and the light got more intense before, very suddenly, every single light in the mansion went dark.

There was a little thump, and Katie — small and shrill and terrified — started to scream bloody murder before Strange was able to get the lights back. When they could all see again, Kate was back to being four years old and _terrified_ , and Billy had slumped over, completely drained and passed out on the floor by the couch.

Logan didn't wait around before he scooped Katie up in a bear hug and just got her out of the room without a backward glance while Kurt tried to attend to Billy, crouched down beside the incredibly pale-looking young man as he tried to rouse him.

When Billy finally started to stir awake, he had hardly opened his eyes before he croaked out, "Did it work?"

"The spell itself was a success," Strange explained in a calm tone. "But you lacked the focus and energy necessary to _complete_ it." He was frowning to himself, his chin resting on his folded hands as he watched Billy come back to his senses.

"No more magic until you're fully recharged," Kurt warned. "And then you can do it for real. You will stay here in the meantime." His tone left absolutely no room for argument as he helped Billy to sit up and lean against the couch he had slipped off of, and while he was definitely caring for the exhausted young man, he looked more severe than Billy had ever seen him look before.

Billy nodded tiredly and brought a hand up to his head, looking a bit worried at Kurt's expression. "It was working. I saw her," he muttered. "The real Kate."

"Yes," Kurt agreed. "But you didn't see the part where the spell didn't work and she fell apart. If there is another false start, she may become permanently attached to Logan."

Billy winced and nodded, unable to meet Kurt's gaze. "I'm really sorry. I'll try again as soon as I can. I'll fix this, I promise."

"No." Kurt glared at Billy until the young man looked up to meet his gaze. "You will rest until you are sure. Then, you will rest a bit more until _I_ am sure."

"You will need at least 72 hours before you have enough energy to attempt the spell again," Strange told him calmly. "Three days without magic — we'll spend our time tuning your focus in the meantime and teaching you how to draw from energies other than your own to aid you."

"Then we'll see you back here in _four_ days," Kurt replied.

Billy looked between Kurt and Strange with wide eyes before he just swallowed hard and nodded his agreement. "Is Katie okay?" he asked quietly. "Can I ... do anything to help?"

"I'm not entirely sure, to be honest," Kurt told him, softening his glare for the first time as he glanced to the door that Logan had taken Katie through. "Logan snatched her up and left — I'm sure it was to take her away from all this."

Billy nodded carefully and then covered his face with his hands. "I really screwed up," he muttered. "I'm going to fix it. I promise. I just — I'm really sorry."

"Until then, you need rest," Strange said with a frown. "You're still drawing too much from your own energies." He let out a sigh as he looked Billy over. "When we're done here, and your friend is returned to normal, I'd like to continue working with you, or you will drain yourself dry of your emerging power before you come into your own."

Billy just nodded and muttered, "Yes, sir," very quietly before he pushed up to his feet using the couch and just tried to leave the room as quickly as he could, trying very hard to ignore the looks the others were giving him.

…..

Kurt was right. Logan had taken the absolutely terrified Katie out of the living room and into a quieter corner in the teacher's lounge, where he sat down on the couch with Katie and just tried to do what he could to soothe her.

It had taken her some time before she stopped screaming, though it had helped significantly to get her out of the living room and to somewhere just the two of them as she grabbed a tight hold of Logan's shirt and just refused to let go. Somewhere in the crying fit she was having, Katie had decided she'd had enough, and once she was able to speak again, she made sure to tell him so — "No more X-Men. I wanna go _home_."

Logan didn't know what to tell her short of just nodding his head as he snuggled her tightly and muttered out 'I know' and 'it's gonna be fine' over and over.

Katie was still sniffling and crying when Scott poked his head in the door with an open look of concern, though that expression quickly shifted to one of surprise when he saw the deep snuggle that Katie had tucked into with Logan as he was calming her down — and the fact that Logan didn't seem the least bit uncomfortable about it only seemed to raise Scott's eyebrows further in surprise.

Scott took a breath and looked over Katie's head to Logan. "Our sorcerer supreme says it'll be another 72 hours at least before they can try again," he said quietly and carefully.

"We'll talk about it later," Logan told him.

Scott nodded. "I just ... thought you might like something concrete," he said.

"She's done," Logan said quietly over Katie's whimpering. "She wants to go home _now._ "

"I'm not surprised," Scott said with a soft sigh before he edged a bit closer, looking at Katie now instead of Logan. "Katie," he said gently, "Katie, we're going to take you home in one week. That's how long it'll take to get everything cleaned up, alright?" He watched the crying little girl for a moment longer before he added, "And then you don't ever have to come back here again if you don't want to."

Katie just held onto Logan tighter and sniffled for a little while before she simply nodded her head. "No more scary stuff," she mumbled into Logan's shoulder.

"No more scary stuff," he agreed with a soft rumble.

"And then we can go home," Katie added, picking her head up just enough so that Logan could see the full force of a very determined look.

"You got it," he agreed, wiping the tears off her cheeks.

She nodded a couple time before she just snuggled back into him, finally starting to calm down as she just curled into Logan's chest and seemed determined to stay there.

"Should we… get her to bed?" Scott asked.

"I've got it, Scooter. Go on," Logan rumbled.

Scott couldn't help but look surprised again before he just nodded and slipped back out of the teacher's lounge, leaving the two of them in peace as Katie settled in deeper and seemed to be content to fall asleep right there on the couch with him.


	9. Mr Logan's Simulation

**Notes: Well, I'd point you at the 2013 Young Avengers run for everything you need to know about the Demiurge, since that was pretty much the main plot of that whole run, but for the purposes of anyone who hasn't read it, basically: One day in the future, Billy is going to cause a cosmic event that has ripples across all of reality and all dimensions. To the point that he actually has created dimensions such as the one America is from, so he's basically a god to her (until she discovers he's a dork and then she's just like… wut; it's glorious please read it). BUT. It hasn't happened yet and Billy really wasn't supposed to know about it, except Loki was on his team…. And… yeah. When you have the god of mischief on your team, you end up finding out things you're not supposed to. (Which isn't to say Loki didn't try to keep him from finding out. If nothing else, you HAVE to see the panels of Loki trying to distract Billy from seeing his face in the stars. It is hi-larious.)**

 **Billy has tried being the Demiurge once, actually. Toward the end of the YA run, he went full Demiurge, and he could literally see all of reality, across multiple dimensions. It was really cool and really well done, and I highly recommend it if you're a scifi nerd like me who loves alternate reality stuff ;) But Teddy got him back down from his powers because he wasn't ready for them and it would have overwhelmed him otherwise. That doesn't mean the powers aren't there, or that they aren't growing. It just means he's not ready. But… you know. Growing pains. ;)**

 **The point is basically read the 2013 YA run actually. That's the point I'm making here because I love it to itty bitty pieces. (And it has my man Noh. Who I love. READ IT.)**

 **Also yes, Wolvie is definitely getting attached. Quite literally ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Mr. Logan's Simulation**

* * *

The next morning, Logan woke up in the teacher's lounge well before Katie did, though he didn't make a move to wake the exhausted little girl still asleep on his chest. Instead, he just shifted slightly so he had a more comfortable position and waited her out — not surprised in the least when Kurt came in to check on them before Katie was up.

Kurt looked a bit tired, and Logan didn't press — he'd heard his friend teleport in a few times during the night to check on the two of them; that was how the blanket around Kate's shoulders found its way into the teachers' lounge in the first place. Kurt seemed mostly content to just sit there with them and wait with Logan, watching the little girl sleep with one hand resting on the side of Logan's neck, though it was plain to see the Elf was upset with this latest turn of events — he missed Kate awfully, and another delay was weighing on him heavily.

The three of them sat in silence for a long while before Kurt looked back at Logan and gave his friend a tired smile. "Thank you, Logan — for taking care of her," he said softly.

Logan just nodded his way — unwilling to even risk speaking to wake her up.

"We're going to try again in four days," Kurt told him, still speaking at a soft enough whisper that he was sure Katie couldn't hear — though of course Logan could. Logan just watched him to hear more, hoping that Kurt would buy the hint and keep talking.

"Until then, Wiccan isn't allowed to use any magic. At all." Kurt met his friend's gaze. "And this time, it _will_ work." He sighed, leaned back, and shook his head. "It has to."

Logan just nodded his friend's way but didn't say anything else, looking down to the exhausted little girl on his chest as she slept on through the early morning.

It wasn't long after that before, at last, Katie started to wiggle a little and stretch out. She opened one eye sleepily and saw Kurt, which just got a tired little nod before she looked over to check and see if her guardbody was awake, too. When Logan gave her a little smile, she very sleepily grinned at him. "Hi."

"Mornin, Punkin'," he said quietly. "You sleep okay?"

She nodded and started to rub her eyes. "Can we watch a movie?" she asked sleepily. "I don't wanna play today."

"Sure, kiddo," Logan agreed. "You wanna eat first or just go right to movies?"

Katie considered her options for a long moment. "Froot Loops first," she decided.

"Not in the mood for coffee yet then, eh?" Logan teased before he shot Kurt a look meant to try and tempt his best friend into a smile.

She wrinkled her nose at him. "Coffee's _gross_."

"You say that now," Kurt told her, unable to quite resist the urge to smile at her reaction to coffee. "Wait until you're older. You'll love it."

She stuck her tongue out at Kurt. "Nu-uh. It smells funny."

"Oh man, of all the commentary to miss with Jubes' documenting," Logan grumbled, which just had Kurt chuckling under his breath.

Katie climbed down off the couch and pulled on Logan's hand. "Come on. You can have smelly coffee while I have Froot Loops," she decided before she very determinedly led the way out of the room.

When they got down to the kitchen, Scott and Annie were already at the table just chatting with each other easily, though both of them turned their attention to Katie as soon as the other three made their appearance. When Katie started to push her chair to the counter to get herself some cereal, Annie came over to offer her help. "Would you like me to pour you a bowl?" she asked kindly.

Katie scrunched up her nose at Annie. "I can do it by myself," she insisted, though Annie looked doubtful at that.

"Don't argue," Kurt advised when he saw the look on Annie's face. "She likes to be independent."

Annie looked from Kurt to Katie and then smiled. "Alright. I'm sure you can do it just fine," she said, though she didn't leave her spot by the counter and was quick to try and keep Katie from tipping the milk too far — despite Katie's protests that "I got it!"

Logan poured himself a cup of coffee and made his way over to sit next to Scott. "The Elf filled me in, mostly."

"Is she still asking to go h-o-m-e?" Scott asked, with half an eye on Katie.

"Hasn't said anything about it this morning yet. But she's in a mood. Just wants movies."

"Must be tired," Scott surmised. He pursed his lips a bit as he considered Logan. "Do you know what you'll watch?" he had to ask — not quite sure just how much Logan had this in hand, considering how much snuggling had been going on the previous night but also considering what he _knew_ about his teammate.

Logan just chuckled. "You're a laugh riot, you know that?"

Scott turned to face him better. "For what? Asking a simple question?"

"Kids movies are more your speed, Boy Scout. I have no idea what the hell she wants or what won't freak her out."

Scott nodded. That sounded more in line with the Logan he knew. "Annie's got an entire collection for the girls if you'd like to look through it," he suggested.

"Let the girls figure it out. If I can slip away, I will."

"Just sticking around for the scary parts, then," Scott said with one eyebrow raised.

"That's like my life's resume," Logan chuckled low before he slumped forward over his mug. "It all depends on if she'll relax or freak out if I try to walk out of the room."

"Maybe that depends on how scary she thinks the movie is." Scott smirked. "You probably shouldn't watch _Snow White_ or anything with magic in it."

"Yeah, no magic. How hard can that be?"

Scott just smirked a bit wider. "I'm sure you're up for the challenge."

Logan had one hand partway over his face and his eyes closed as he rubbed one eye. "I kinda hate you, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Scott said, unable to stop the smirk from growing.

"So should I ask - how long are you waiting to get a whole flock of your own?" Logan shot a little smirk right back at him.

Scott looked surprised at the change in conversation for a moment before he shrugged as he glanced over at Annie still trying to help Katie. "Honestly, I'm leaving it up to her," he admitted.

"Right away then," Logan said with a nod.

Scott shot Logan a dry look and then shook his head at him. "If you believe Jubes," he allowed.

"I don't have to believe Jubes," Logan told him. "I can see that all on my own." He paused and tipped his head toward him. "Good for you, though. Probably what you want anyhow. Deny if you need to, but it's pretty plain to see."

Scott just crossed his arms and leaned back. "You sound like her parents."

"Don't you mean grandparents? Great grandparents?"

"I think you skipped ahead a couple generations there."

"I was talkin' 'bout the future tiny Summers, but I suppose you're right. More of us should wait until we're over a hundred to consider the options. At least 140."

"And how old are you again?" Scott countered.

"One thirty _ish_." Logan deadpanned. "Either too old or too young for this crap."

"You're getting some pretty good practice in," Scott pointed out with half an eye on the little girl determinedly feeding herself cereal.

"Yeah, but _you're_ the one getting married, and I'm old fashioned like that. One thirty-ish and all."

Scott's smirk just widened before he let out a little huff of a laugh. "Watch something like _Wal-E_ first," he advised at last. "Leslie Ann loves it, and there's no magic."

"Thanks, Slim. I'm sure that'll work."

"Anytime." Scott saluted him with his coffee mug with the smirk still firmly in place as Katie announced that she was done with Froot Loops and that it was time for movies.

It wasn't long at all before Katie had dragged Logan along with her to put on _Wal-E,_ and she snuggled right into his side and seemed content to stay there for the entire movie — he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Halfway through the movie, Kurt brought in a huge bowl of popcorn, and the three of them more or less settled in as Katie seemed to eat up the action of the movie — and didn't seem scared in the least, since there was absolutely no magic to be found in this movie.

Once the first movie was over, Katie didn't let Logan get up and insisted that they had to watch another one, which meant Kurt was in charge of setting up the next movie as Leslie Ann poked her head into the room with a curious look on her face.

"Is there anymore popcorn left?" she asked as soon as she saw the big bowl, making her way further into the room with a little smile. When she looked over the bowl and saw that there wasn't any, she pouted a bit but then got distracted as Kurt was trying to pick out a movie that didn't have magic in it — which was fairly difficult.

"We're watching movies today," Katie informed Leslie Ann, and the older girl just grinned at her.

"Do you have a favorite movie?" Leslie Ann asked as she started to climb up the couch to sit by her new friend.

Katie giggled and nodded. "I like _Aristocats_."

Leslie Ann wrinkled her nose. "I've never seen that one."

Katie looked absolutely gobsmacked. "What?" She looked up at Logan and tugged on his shirt insistently. "We gotta watch that next. We just _gotta_."

"I have no idea what there is to watch, sweetheart," he told her. "But if it's here — go for it."

"Scott and Annie might have it," Kurt suggested. "I can ask them." He picked up the popcorn bowl as he said it. "Besides — we need more snacks." With that, he teleported away, leaving Logan stuck between two little girls excitedly chattering about the best movies and giggling over their favorite princesses.

By the time Kurt showed up again, with Scott and a stack of three or four movies in tow, Mary Beth had wandered in as well, looking for her big sister. In no time, the three girls had completely taken over the couch with Logan, but once Scott's nieces saw that Scott looked like he might try to leave after he'd delivered the movie selections — there was no escape for him either, and they quickly made room for him too, all but piling on him.

"You gotta watch with us," Leslie Ann insisted as she pulled Scott onto the couch so that she and Mary Beth could climb into his lap. "This is Katie's favorite movie, so you _gotta_ watch it too."

Kurt was absolutely no help to his teammates as he just perched on the couch behind them and set the popcorn down where all three girls could have some without leaving their respective teddy bears.

"You're an enabler, Elf," Logan said, looking up at him with a glare.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," Kurt said with a grin as he lazily reached over with his tail for the remote to start the movie.

Logan looked over Katie's head to where Scott was now similarly pinned down. " _Now_ the evil side comes out in him."

Katie looked up at him and giggled. "No — you said Mr. Nightcrawler is the best good guy ever. Remember? He's not bad even if he looks scary, silly."

"You're right, little darlin'," Logan replied with a little smirk. "I just forgot for a minute there. Thought I might have to do something to his tail."

At that, Kurt's tail stilled straight behind him, and he gave Logan a look. "Thank goodness I have my Katie here to remind you," he said pointedly. Logan just chuckled at him, though Scott clearly wanted to hear the story behind that, even if he couldn't ask with the little girls surrounding them.

But Katie looked up at Kurt and put a finger to her mouth. "Shhh," she told him sternly. "We're gonna watch the movie now. Leslie Ann hasn't _seen_ it."

"Yeah," Logan said, giving her just as stern a look right back. "But it hasn't started yet."

She considered Logan for a moment and then tipped her head up to look at Kurt upside down. "We gotta start the movie before you grown-ups start _talking_ again," she told him seriously, which had Kurt chuckling quietly as he started it up for her.

Throughout the movie, it was obvious Katie knew the whole thing by heart as she happily hummed along to most of the songs and even mouthed along the words to her favorite lines with a huge grin on her face the entire time. Every once in a while, her _favorite_ parts would come up, and she would glance up at either Kurt or Logan to make sure that they were appropriately awed — or amused, whichever was the correct reaction — by the movie. Or to make sure Logan was still awake, as she insisted he had to watch the _whole_ thing.

Partway through _Aristocats_ , Mary Beth fell asleep on Scott's lap, curled up under a blanket that Leslie Ann grabbed for her little sister, which only meant that Scott was even more pinned down for the movie marathon — and left both Scott and Logan vulnerable to Jubilee as soon as she discovered them tucked away.

There were a few muted clicks as she stepped into the room and then whispered just for Logan to hear, "Behold, the future," with an expression that clearly said she was dying of cute.

* * *

"C'mon, Katie, I just gotta do something other than watch movies and snuggle," Logan told her after the third one. "I won't be long, but I gotta move."

Reasoning with the little girl was the last ditch effort. She had already countered his attempt to go for a run on the estate alone with a request to go swimming instead so she wouldn't have to let him out of her sight. He countered with an offer to carry her for the run — but no.

Now, he was simply trying to grab an hour in the Danger Room with the safety protocols off, but she flat didn't like the sound of the room's _name._ Luckily, Scott could see as he came into the living room after taking the girls home that Logan actually really _needed_ to do something physical before he got too snarly to be around any small child. It looked like Logan was reaching a breaking point of not _breaking things_.

Logan glanced up at Scott, and before he said a word, Scott knew what was coming. "What about Scott? The girls seem to think he's _okay_. You can pick on him for a little while," Logan suggested.

"I don't _wanna_ pick on people. I wanna stay _here_ and eat ice cream and watch _Mulan!_ "

"So why don't you watch it with him, and I'll be back before it's over?" Logan offered.

"Scott's not _my_ uncle. He's Leslie Ann's!"

Logan looked up at Scott and shook his head. "Yeah, but he's good at this. He's the one that picked out your robot movie this morning."

Katie looked up at Scott for a second, startled into a shy smile. "I liked the robot movie," she admitted.

"You know," Scott said with a smile of his own as he crouched down to Katie's eye level. "There's lots of robots in the Danger Room. We can watch from far away if you want — like going to a baseball game."

Katie looked him over with a scrunched up expression. "I don't like baseball."

"Maybe that wasn't the best way to explain it. It's more like… watching a play," Scott tried again. "And Logan's in the play just for you. What do you think?"

Katie frowned as she looked between the two men. "I guess," she muttered.

"I can't run _my_ program with her in the control booth," Logan grumbled as he crossed his arms and gave Scott a deep scowl.

"How about that," Scott said dryly as he offered Katie his hand. "I'm sure we'll come up with something for you to run instead, won't we, Katie?"

"More robots?" Katie offered.

"More robots," Scott agreed with a look over his shoulder at Logan as he promised Katie he'd take her down to the Danger Room so she could keep an eye on Logan.

"What've you got in mind, Slim?" Logan asked as he watched Katie all but dance around Scott.

"Just tear through anything I shoot your way," he replied easily.

"So what we always do then. Fine." With that, Logan headed off to change, hoping that at least he'd be able to stretch out and burn off a little pent up energy while Scott dealt with the purple ball of energy.

By the time Logan stepped into the Danger Room, in uniform, Scott and Katie were waiting in the control booth, and Scott was explaining to Katie how the room worked.

"This is a place where X-Men can practice fighting bad guys," he told her as she peered out through the windows and waved at Logan far below them.

"Mr. Logan's good at fighting bad guys," Katie told him as she turned her attention back to Scott with a little smile.

"Yes, he is," Scott had to agree. He started to set the controls for the simulation before he turned to Katie. "He's really good at fighting off things that are scary, isn't he?" When Katie nodded, he asked, "What kind of bad guys do you think he fights?"

Katie bounced a little bit in place and bit her lip as she thought it over. "You said there were robots," she said at last, and Scott nodded.

"Robots it is," he said as he started up the sim for Logan, then picked Katie up to put her on his shoulders so she could have a better view as Logan went to work.

Logan was more or less surrounded with slightly larger-than-life Sentinels, and though the safety settings were on, he still treated them as if they were an actual threat. As soon as the sim started, he darted to one side and attacked the first, quick and careful to avoid any blasts — or to take advantage of their aiming systems so they took each other out.

He flipped and kicked his way through the little circle of Sentinels, tearing off robotic limbs and ripping out wires — everything short of using his claws, which would have ended the sim much faster than he did. He finished the sim by tearing off the last Sentinel's head and riding its body to the ground just before the whole pile of them flickered and disappeared.

In the control booth, Scott twisted his head to look up at Katie, who was wide-eyed but grinning. "What other kind of bad guys do you think he fights?" he asked Katie, who had to think about it hard, her little nose scrunched up.

"He fought the bad guys that picked me up," she offered, and Scott raised an eyebrow at that but nodded carefully.

"Yeah, he doesn't like bad guys that mess with cute big girls like you," Scott told her seriously, and she giggled as he looked over the controls, surprised when he found some settings that Kate — the older one — looked to have put in herself. "Do you want him to fight those guys next?"

When Katie nodded, Scott set up the next sim and set her down again close to the window so she could see the tracksuits materializing in the Danger Room around Logan, and though she tightened her grip on Scott's arm when she saw them, she had her nose all but pressed to the glass to watch Logan.

Instead of attacking them like he'd attacked the robots though, Logan just waited for them to come to him before he let it turn into a free-for-all. The punches were solid, and Scott had to keep from laughing when he realized that every time that Logan really creamed one of them, the target in question would shout 'Bro' at least twice before it disappeared. Which on its own was funny enough — but when Logan really got into punishing them with hard hits and kicks, that was nearly _all_ that was audible over the sounds of adamantium laced fists hitting the hard-light holograms, though Scott was also sure that Logan was swearing.

But again — the tracksuits shimmered off quickly enough, and although Scott was expecting the familiar dry look from Logan, all he got was one that seemed more understanding of what Scott was doing.

From there, it was just a matter of finding out what Katie was afraid of and sending the bad guys Logan's way. Scary magic users became robed figures for Logan to barrel through. Then there were a few different kinds of aliens when Katie admitted she was scared of those, too. By the time Logan had worked his way through a good long session, Katie was having a blast from the control booth, and Logan got the chance to work off some steam.

When the sims ended and Logan headed out to change and shower off quickly, Katie was in high spirits as she climbed up onto the chair where Scott was sitting to give him a big hug and say thank you for teaching her about the Danger Room — which, she assured him, no longer sounded super scary.

He took her back to the kitchen, as it was just about dinner time again, and when they got there, Kurt was waiting for them with a smile. "Annie decided to take over dinner tonight. Once she heard Bobby was cooking, she commandeered the kitchen."

Scott broke into a wide grin. "Then we're in for a treat. When Annie cooks for a crowd, it's _amazing_."

"I believe she said something about making sure we had _real_ food," Kurt said with a smirk just before there was a little clatter of pans from the kitchen.

"If y'all make me ruin this chicken, I'mma find a way to fry you too!" came Annie's shout, along with the sounds of slightly terrified giggling that _had_ to be the bamfs.

"She might mean that," Scott said quietly as both he and Kurt looked toward the kitchen door. "When she sounds like that, it usually means trouble."

"I'll just ... go rescue the bamfs," Kurt said quickly before he teleported into the kitchen, and Scott and Katie could hear him trying to reason with the little demons as Annie called out a few more threats involving different dishes she could make with them.

Scott smirked to himself as he sat in the nearest seat and listened to his fiance threaten literal demons from hell before Katie climbed up in the chair next to him. "Your girlfriend is funny. I like her," Katie told him with a cheeky grin, and he had to laugh and nod.

"I like her too."

She just kept climbing until she was sitting on the table in front of him instead of just in the chair, grinning wider. She tilted her head at him and seemed to be thinking about something before she asked, "What's your favorite color?"

"Blue," Scott replied. "What's yours?"

"I like purple," Katie told him with a big, sloppy grin as she pointed at her shirt. "That's why I wear it all the time. So I thought maybe yours was red."

"Ah," Scott said with a big nod. "It's kind of hard for me to see colors right."

"How come?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Because I have to wear these red glasses all the time," Scott explained as he tapped the side of his glasses. "It makes _everything_ look red."

"Really?" Katie tipped her head at him and studied him for a second before she climbed down into his lap and just grabbed the glasses right off his face to put them on the bridge of her own nose with a giggle. "Oooh, everything looks weird!" she announced as she looked around through the glasses.

Of course, Scott had shut his eyes tightly as soon as she'd touched the glasses, but it wasn't nearly as amusing for him. "Okay, Katie, I need those back now."

"Just a minute," she insisted as she kept looking through the glasses, now examining her shoes with a giggle as she put the glasses on, then took them off, then put them back on again. "Wow. Even my sparkle shoes look red!"

"Yes, I know, but I can't see without them, Katie." Scott let out a little sigh. "Can I please have them back now?"

Katie looked up at him through the glasses and then giggled. "I wanna see the grass first," she told him as she climbed down. "It's all Christmasy in here!"

He called out for her to come back and tried to sound as approachable as possible, even though he just wanted them back quickly, but the only answer he got from her was a giggle and another 'oooooh' as she discovered something else that was … red.

It wasn't much longer before Logan came up the stairs, all fresh and clean, but he frowned when Katie ran up to him with Scott's glasses on and a huge grin. "Where did you get those?" he asked.

"Scott can't see colors!" Katie declared. "Everything is red in here. You look funny."

Logan looked horrified for just a moment before he snatched up Katie and took the glasses off of her face. "Scott really does need these, kiddo. You can't take them from him."

"I'm gonna give them _back_ ," she promised. "I just want to _see_ things!"

"Yeah, but while you're playing, he's just stuck wherever you left him," he told her. "Look." He brought her to where she'd left Scott, who still had his eyes shut tightly, and he looked very tense until Logan handed him his glasses and gave his shoulder a squeeze. "You alright, Slim?"

Scott nodded and quickly put the glasses back on, visibly relaxing once he had them back. "Yeah. Thanks."

"Katie, you gotta apologize. How long was he waiting for you here?" Logan asked.

"I dunno," Katie admitted with a frown as it was clearly starting to dawn on her that she was in _trouble_. "I was playing," she muttered sullenly.

"You need to tell him you're sorry, or I'll have Kurt keep the bamfs from playing with you."

Katie looked up quickly at Logan, who, to her dismay, looked entirely serious about his threat. She shuffled over to Scott and looked down at the floor, one little sneaker scuffing the ground. "I'm sorry, Scott," she said quietly. "I won't take your Christmas glasses anymore."

Scott looked her over for a moment and then nodded with a very small, tight smile. "That's alright, Katie. Just don't do it again, okay? I need those."

"Okay," Katie said, still staring at the ground before she looked back over at Logan, who watched her until she continued, "I won't do it again."

"Good," Logan said with a nod. "Pick out where you want to sit."

"I wanna sit by Mr. Nightcrawler," she said quickly, starting to brighten up. "Wherever he's sitting, that's where _I_ wanna sit."

"Where _is_ Mr. Nightcrawler?" Logan asked Scott as he glanced around the room.

"Trying to keep the bamfs out of Annie's way," Scott explained, some of his smirk starting to come back.

"How's that workin' for him?"

Scott tipped his head at the kitchen door. "Well, she's stopped threatening to turn them into stew, so I think he might be making progress," he said, smirking wider still.

It wasn't long after that when Kurt finally reappeared, looking slightly frazzled, and with several little blue bamfs all but attached to him and looking very wide eyed — but the shouting from the kitchen had stopped, and he settled into a seat with a relieved sigh. "Annie says dinner should be ready in about ten minutes," he told Scott. "I've got the rest of the bamfs rounding everyone up to come eat."

As Katie skipped over to Kurt, Logan and Scott headed to the kitchen to grab a beer and check on the anger level of Scott's fiance. She seemed to be hard at work pouring an entire bottle of Italian salad dressing into a pot of green beans and making sure that the chicken frying in buttermilk on the stove got turned at just the right time. When she looked up to see the two men, she just gave them a little nod. "It's not ready yet," she said. "Go take your little army outside."

"Do you want us to—"

Annie cut her fiance off with a _look_ , which got them moving pretty quickly out of the kitchen again. Scott was pushing Logan ahead of him as he looked up at Scott as if he was crazy, though Scott didn't really see the look, too focused on just getting out of Annie's way.

When they got back to the dining room, it was to find Katie halfway snuggled into Kurt side as she was telling him about how she was going to go home in a few days.

"And then I'll show Dad all the new dance moves I learned from my teacher, but I'm really worried I forgot them because it's been a really long time, and if you don't go to class, you forget things," Katie was telling him very seriously. "But maybe he won't be home until later after we get there so I can have time to practice. I have a big practice room all to myself!"

"All to yourself? That sounds like a lot of room for you to dance," Kurt said with a nod.

She nodded her agreement. "It has a _big_ mirror in it so you can see all the things you're doing, and sometimes I make faces in it when the teacher isn't looking." She illustrated by scrunching her nose and sticking her tongue out before she whispered, "But she usually catches me. I'm not very sneaky."

"Sometimes it's fun to make faces at people even when they can see you," Kurt teased. He reached over and booped her nose, and her eyes lit up in a grin as she nodded.

"Mom says it's not ladylike, though," she confided in him. "She says if I make that face for too long, it'll get stuck, so one time? I pretended my face was stuck to scare Susie."

"Did it work?" he asked leaning close to hear her whisper her story.

She giggled and nodded. "Susie thought I was gonna be stuck like that _forever_."

"Maybe that's why Spidey wears a mask," Kurt whispered with a teasing sparkle in his eyes.

"Does he make silly faces too?" she asked, wide-eyed. "Did he get _stuck_?"

"He might have," Kurt replied. "I don't really know, but he is very silly, and I wouldn't be surprised at all."

She giggled and nodded. "He _is_! He and Bobby are really, really silly together. I like it when they babysit." She snuggled into him deeper as she added, "They can't babysit me at my house, though. That's not allowed."

"Why not?" Kurt asked, his head tipped to the side.

She looked up at him very seriously. "Cuz they're not guardbodies, silly!"

"Are you planning on keeping the guardbody you have?" Kurt asked, genuinely curious now.

"I _want_ to," Katie said with a little nod. "I like Mr. Logan. He's my favorite."

"He's my favorite too," Kurt said before he leaned closer and whispered the last part. "He's my best friend, you know."

She looked up at him with wide eyes. "You're really, really lucky!" she told him. She bounced slightly in her seat. "When I get a best friend someday, I want him to be just like _your_ best friend!"

Kurt grinned as he thought of America punching holes in dimensions. "I'm sure your best friend will be perfect for you."

She giggled and nodded as the rest of the X-Men started to file in for dinner, herded by some determined-looking bamfs who had been half-intimidated into making sure Annie's dinner went well. "Do you think you could come and visit me and Mr. Logan when I go home?" she asked in her quietest whisper. "I think you could get inside and nobody would know."

"I think I could too," Kurt agreed. "And I think if you're keeping Logan, I'll _have_ to come visit."

"Oh good." Katie beamed up at him. "That's important, because he's your best friend." She settled back down, having imparted her big secret, and went back to humming to herself as usual - songs from the _Aristocats_ more recognizable now that it was fresh in her memory.

By this time, most of the X-Men had arrived, and Annie finally emerged from the kitchen with a feast of buttermilk fried chicken, stuffed baked potatoes, and green beans — as well as cornbread and a salad on the side. She'd had ten full minutes not being bothered by the bamfs or any more intruders into her kitchen, so she was positively beaming as she set the food out for them.

Of course, the X-Men were glad to have something other than macaroni for the night, and more than that, they very quickly discovered that Annie was an excellent cook. She plied Billy with extra helpings because he just looked so wiped, and when Kitty arrived toward the end of the dinner, Annie was careful to make sure she had not only a full meal but dessert. It didn't take Katie long to decide she liked Kitty, either, because Kitty seemed to love chocolate ice cream just as much as she did.

It wasn't until dessert was pretty well over with that Kitty slipped over to crouch down by Katie's chair. "Hey. I brought you a present," Kitty whispered as she picked up a little sparkly purple gift bag. "It's super special, and it took me forever to find."

Katie's eyes widened with delight, and she giggled and she very carefully reached out for the bag so she could peek at what was inside. As soon as she saw Kitty's present, she let out a little squeal of delight, both feet kicking again, as she pulled out the purple tutu and the matching ballet shoes.

"Can you help me put it on?" she asked Kitty.

"Yes, of course," Kitty said with a nod. "After dessert. After your bath. _And_ I'll dance with you if you want a partner."

Katie let out a little sigh but then looked down at the cornbread crumbs on her shirt. "Okay," she said before she went back to beaming at Kitty. "I like dancing! Can I show you my twirls when we go dancing?"

"Yes, if I can show you mine too," Kitty said. "I love dancing." She looked thoughtful for a second, her finger on her chin. "Maybe we can do a dance together too."

"Ooh, yes please!" Katie said, nodding enthusiastically. "We can put on a show!"

Kurt grinned as he watched two of his favorite girls getting along so incredibly well, and he just had to shake his head as they excitedly giggled over their love of dancing. "Katie, why don't you tell Kitty about your dance practice room at home?" Kurt suggested.

Katie beamed and nodded. "It's got a really, really big mirror," she whispered delightedly to Kitty, who just grinned wider at her as the two of them disappeared and Katie clearly had a new best friend as their giggles could be heard down the hall long after they'd left.


	10. Kate, Not Katie

**Notes: griezz: Well, Kate has several "bffs". Cassie, Billy, America… She's just friendly ;) But we're glad you liked the call-out to Kitty's dancing past! We really think Marvel should make better use of the good details that they have on their characters; there's so much potential being ignored here!**

 **And Scruffy… well, your wish is our command! Here; have some more cute!**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: "Kate, not Katie"**

* * *

The next three days were a bit easier on everyone with the addition of Leslie Ann and Mary Beth to help keep Katie occupied and playing games — though Katie seemed to be getting crankier with each passing day, even if she wouldn't tell anyone why.

When Kitty and Jubilee came by her room to help her get dressed in her purple tutu and to braid ribbons in her hair, it took them a solid fifteen minutes before they could even get started, because she had attached herself to Jubilee the moment she walked through the door and just started to cry as she informed her, "I _like_ your hair braiding."

"I can still braid your hair," Jubilee said, looking down at Katie's little shoulders as she scrunched them up to her ears. Kitty was taken off guard too by the change in the little girl and just glanced at Jubilee, totally baffled.

"I want ribbons in my hair," Katie agreed as she just hugged Jubilee tighter.

"I brought new purple ones," Kitty offered. "Just for you."

Katie lifted her head up to look at Kitty and then ran over to give Kitty a similarly tight hug. "You're really, really nice to me," she said as she latched onto Kitty's arm.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Kitty asked, trying hard to understand why Katie was so upset.

Katie scrunched her little nose up in confusion. "You don't gotta play with me. You have other friends," she tried to explain.

"But we _like_ playing with you."

Katie just latched onto Kitty arm harder, though she did allow Jubilee to braid her hair, as long as she could hold Kitty's hand or arm or something while Jubilee worked. By the time they were ready for the day, it had taken the three girls far longer than usual, and Katie was still insisting on holding both of their hands all the way down to breakfast.

Annie met the girls in the kitchen with a bright smile as she was taking her second batch of muffins out of the oven. This one was blueberry, but there were apple cinnamon ones out on the table already, and the kitchen smelled delicious with the coffee brewing and the muffins baking. "Good morning, Katie. Good morning, girls," Annie said with a bright smile as Katie darted over to grab a cinnamon muffin that wasn't too hot to touch yet. "You look very nice today, Katie."

Katie nodded as she took a bite of muffin. "I like when Jubilee does my hair," she said as she patted the seat next to her to try and get Jubilee and Kitty to sit down with her.

The girls quickly grabbed their coffee and muffins and sat on either side of her. They were happy to join Katie as she kicked her feet a lot slower than normally, though she was clearly making a valiant effort to act like her usual chipper self.

Even so, Katie was much quieter than usual that morning, and as soon as the kitchen door opened to admit Storm, she was instantly alert, watching as Storm made herself a cup of tea. "You really don't have to cook for us all the time," Storm said to Annie as she leaned against the counter.

"I woke up early this morning," Annie explained with a shrug. "The jet lag's still playing with my sense of timing. And I thought - I might as well make myself busy."

"I just don't want you to feel obligated," Storm said, and Annie laughed her off.

"I really don't mind. Actually, I like baking. It's a good stress reliever to have something to beat into a pulp," she admitted, and Storm smiled wider at that.

"I hope you're not overly stressed about anything in particular," she said.

"Oh, no," Annie said quickly, shaking her head. "Don't worry about me. It's just — you know how it is when you move to a new place. There's so much change all at once."

Storm nodded her agreement. "I remember," she said as she took a sip of tea before she felt a tiny hand tugging on her pants and looked down to see that Katie was standing just beside her, a cinnamon muffin in hand that she held up to present to Storm.

"This is for you," Katie announced solemnly as Storm reached down with a smile to pluck it out of Kate's hands.

"Thank you very much, Katie," Storm said, then raised both eyebrows in surprise when, as soon as she'd taken the muffin, Katie attached herself to Storm's leg in a tight hug that lasted far longer than normal Katie hugs.

When Katie had finally released Storm, she crawled back up between Jubilee and Kitty — but not until after she'd also made sure that Bobby had a big Katie hug and a muffin too. She was just settling back into her seat, her chin on the table as she watched the plate of muffins as if it might run off on her, when Kurt and Logan came in together, talking in low tones.

"... so I sent Gambit to get him to relax," Kurt was telling Logan as the two of them entered the kitchen. "He looked a bit green this morning, and the last thing we need is another false start because of _nerves_."

The two of them had their heads together as they were talking, heading first to the coffee before anything else as Kurt poured them both mugs.

"And do you know — he told me Wiccan wasn't the only one who needed to calm down this morning," Kurt continued, shaking his head with a little chuckle.

"Did you slap him one upside the head?" Logan asked with a smirk.

"I nearly did," Kurt said, laughing quietly. "But then I thought it might prove him right."

The two of them made their way to the table, still quiet and with their heads together as they sat down with just their coffee and the plans for later that day for a second attempt at restoring Katie to her correct age — all spoken in quiet whispers and without mentioning anyone by name in case Katie was listening in.

Their conversation was interrupted when Katie pushed herself in between them, a muffin in either hand as she very determinedly set one down in front of either X-Man.

"What's this for, darlin'?" Logan asked when he realized she was trying to feed them.

"I brought you muffins from Miss Annie," she told him. "Just for you. They're really yummy." She pushed the muffin closer to the edge of the table toward him. "I got you a cinnamon one. Mr. Nightcrawler gets a blueberry one 'cause he's blue."

"That makes perfect sense," Logan said with a nod. "But I don't really like muffins."

"But it's for you," she said stubbornly. "It's _your_ muffin."

"Sweetie, I don't want it."

At that, Katie burst into frustrated tears as she stomped her foot. "You gotta! You gotta eat it!" she insisted over and over.

"Katie, _Kuken_ ," Kurt said soothingly as he tried to calm her down. "Katie, it's alright."

"No, it's not!" she insisted, now turning the full force of her frustration on Kurt. "I wanna muffin with my friends before they go away forever!"

Logan looked up at Kurt quickly and reached over to take Katie's hand. "C'mere, kiddo," he told her quietly. "You wanna split it with me?"

She sniffled and glared at him, but she nodded quietly. "Okay." She climbed up into his lap and grabbed the muffin to press it purposefully into his hands.

"Thank you," Logan said as he gave her a little squeeze with one arm before he looked up at Kurt. "But your friends aren't going to go away forever."

"But — but we're going home," Katie told him earnestly. "You said so! Mr. Scott said one week. And it's been lotsa days!"

"Yeah, but your friends here are like my family," Logan told her. "If you're with me, you get to see them too."

"Nu-uh," she insisted. "What about when _you_ go too?"

He gave her a look, just taking her in for a moment before he tipped his chin up at Jubilee and Kitty. "You see those two over there? The troublemakers you've been dancing with and having hair braiding parties?"

Katie looked over at the girls and seemed to size them up before she nodded. "Uh-huh."

"I took care of them when they were smaller too." He gave her a very serious look. "I take care of my girls."

She looked surprised as she looked from Jubilee and Kitty back to Logan. "But they're all grown-up now!"

"And I still take care of them when they need it," he told her. "You're not getting rid of me that easy."

She looked him in the eye for a long moment before she just nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck for a Katie hug. "Will you take care of me when I'm big too?" she asked him.

"Yep," he promised as he hugged her right back. "No matter what."

She sniffled loudly and snuggled him hard. "Good. You're my favorite."

He let her hug him until she let up a little bit, and then he looked her in the eyes seriously. "The rest of them come with me too. You're stuck with all of 'em. Even Bobby."

"Even Dr. Fuzzy?" she asked, wide-eyed. "I like him too, even if he's a doctor." When Logan nodded seriously, she just climbed down out of his lap. "Okay," she said, then leveled her finger at him. "You better not be lying, mister."

"I don't lie to kids." He tipped his head to Jubilee and Kitty again. "Ask them."

"I'm four and a half and almost a grown up," Katie said with her hands on her hips. "I'm _big_."

"True, but to me, just about everyone's a kid."

"Even Gambles? Or Dr. Fuzzy?" she asked, surprised.

"Yep," he replied with a nod. "Even them."

"You're really old," she told him with her eyebrows raised. "You must be…. _forty_!"

He nodded his head slowly. "Really, really old."

She studied him for a long time, her head tipped to one side. "How come you don't have white hair then?" she demanded.

"Just lucky, I guess," Logan told her. "Not everyone gets white hair, but if you keep scarin' me, I'll probably get it quicker."

She wrinkled her nose at him. "I'm not scary!" she informed him. "I'm pretty."

"You are very pretty," he agreed. "But Spidey told me how you terrorized him playing hide and seek in the house."

She giggled and then covered her mouth quickly, looking around to see if anyone heard her before she leaned forward. "I _tried_ to tell him there's no such thing as ghosts, but he screamed anyway!"

"Did you do it in a spooky voice?" he nearly whispered.

She giggled and nodded. "Maybe I used my spooky voice a little."

"Just a little?"

She held up her hands to show him a 'little bit.' "He screams really high."

"He does, doesn't he?" Logan gave her a little smile and then looked over to Kurt. "If you're still giving out hugs …"

She followed his gaze to Kurt and then giggled as she started to climb up into his lap next. "Did you like your muffin, Mr. Nightcrawler? I picked it out just for you because it had the most blueberries."

"It was perfect," he told her with a smile. "My favorite."

She beamed at him and gave him a warm hug, little arms wrapped around his neck as Kurt just snuggled her right back.

* * *

"You're not taking that girl back in there to scare the crap out of her again," Logan said, arms crossed and just as obstinate as Scott had ever seen him. "Figure out a way not to terrorize her."

"She's scared of magic in general," Billy pointed out. He was rubbing the back of his neck as the group of them discussed the best way to go about their next attempt to restore little Katie to her older self. "She'll be scared even just _sitting_ with me."

"Well, figure something out, genius," Logan replied. "Can you do it once she's asleep?"

Billy glanced over at Strange, who just nodded, before he answered. "Yeah, I can do that," he said. "As long as I can touch her."

Logan thought about it for a good long moment. "I think — if we can wear her out, you might be able to touch her hand and not wake her up." He looked over to Strange. "Does it make a difference if I'm holding her?"

"I wouldn't recommend it while Wiccan is still untrained," Strange told him frankly. "Touching her helps him focus the spell — and if you step into it as well…" He looked Logan over pointedly. "I don't think you would do well with a purple tutu."

"That's very nearly funny, doc," Logan said with a wry smirk before he just nodded to himself. "Alright. I guess… we better play with her for a while."

" _You'd_ better," Billy said with a rueful grin. "She's still scared of me."

"Then you can play with her when you set her right," Logan said with one eyebrow raised.

"If she doesn't take my head off, yeah," Billy muttered.

"I think you'll be fine," Logan said, waving him off before he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "Jubilee has plenty of ammo if you need to get her to calm down."

Billy just laughed nervously — though he wasn't nearly as green as Kurt had described him to Logan earlier. "Well — come find me when she's knocked out. I'll fix this."

"Kurt will get you," Logan said. "It's probably going to be in her room." He watched Billy swallow hard and wrinkled up his nose. "Stop that. No fear."

"Easy for you to say," Billy shot back.

"No. Easy for me to smell. You stink of it. If Kurt makes you that nervous, I'll kick him out myself."

Billy shuffled his feet. "He just really wants Kate back," he explained quietly. "And I screwed her up? So ... you know."

"You didn't do it on purpose. He'll give you a ride to her room and then he's gone. Got it? Just focus on your job," Logan told him in an absolute no-nonsense tone.

Billy swallowed again and nodded. "I'm just… I'm going to go for a walk while you play with Katie."

"Take Remy with you," Logan advised. "And tell him to do _his_ damn job while he's walking with you."

Billy just nodded and quickly scooted out of the foyer to go do just that — which left Logan to go find wherever Katie was playing with Spidey that afternoon.

When he caught up with them, they were playing Uno with Bobby and Kurt - with the bamfs and their own deck of cards close by — a few of them playing and the rest trying to throw cards at everybody in the room.

Logan leaned down over Bobby's shoulder and whispered low to him. "Cards ain't gonna cut it. Wear her out. No nap."

Bobby looked surprised, then grinned and nodded once. "Hey, Katie," he said conversationally, "have you ever ridden a water slide?"

She looked up at Bobby and shook her head. "I'm not tall enough to go with Susie on the slides," she told him seriously.

"Well, I bet you're tall enough to ride ice slides," Bobby said with a growing grin. "And then maybe you and me and Spidey can fight Kurt and his bamfs in a snowball fight. What do you think?"

She looked over at the bamfs with a thoughtful gaze. "There's a lot of them," she said doubtfully.

"Yeah, but we can take 'em," Bobby promised her with a grin.

She looked over at Spiderman, and when he gave her a double thumbs up, she nodded. "Okay. Let's win, then," she said with a little smile that had both of her teammates laughing.

With that, Bobby just went right into the ice sliding. He popped open the window and iced up, then built a little slide that had Katie squealing with delight as she went careening outside, with Bobby close behind feeding her more slide to go on until they were out on the lawn, with Katie giggling madly as Bobby started to build up some snowballs and to coat the ground for their big fight. Kurt and the bamfs 'ported outside shortly after that, and by the time Spiderman swung out to join the fight, the snowballs had already started flying.

There seemed to be no rules in the snowball fight except that nobody would _actually_ hit Katie unless it was very lightly with a little snowball. But other than that, all three of the men playing with her were using the full extent of their powers, with Spidey webbing up and swinging around to get better angles on Kurt, Bobby constantly supplying snowballs as fast as he could, and Kurt popping in and out to avoid getting hit as well as to get behind them for a good hit.

The bamfs, meanwhile, seemed to be completely enjoying their delegated task of wearing Katie out as they would teleport over close to her and let her chase them around for a while before disappearing in a poof of smoke again, usually only to reappear and give her a kiss on the cheek and a little 'bamf' before teleporting away again, so that she wouldn't get too mad at them.

By the time the snowball fight was over, everyone was tired, including Katie, who was still giggling every once in a while when she saw a bamf grin at her but was definitely, visibly slowing down.

When they got inside, Jubilee and Kitty pulled her over to the kitchen. "Hey, I have to leave in a little bit — I have some work to get done," Kitty explained. "But I haven't had a chance to have an ice cream sundae with you yet. Ready for some hot fudge?" Kitty looked just hopeful enough not to oversell it.

Katie nodded with a little grin. "I like chocolate," she agreed as she grabbed onto Kitty's hand and let her lead them to the counter to put together their ice cream.

"Are you sure that's the best idea?" Kurt asked Logan when he spotted his old friend watching the girls from the next room over. Logan just smirked and nodded a few times.

"Yeah," he said. "Let her push right through her nap with a sugar high. When she crashes — she's really gonna crash."

"And so might we," Kurt said with a little laugh. "She's hard to keep up with, especially when you've given her this much sugar."

"Scott's got the girls coming over in twenty minutes," Logan told him. "Fight hyper kids with more hyper kids."

"You know, those two are going to be disappointed when they lose their playmate," Kurt said with a small smile, both at the thought of the two little girls and at the thought of Kate being back to normal.

"They won't lose her; she'll just be a little bigger."

"And _slightly_ less inclined to force you into a Disney movie day," Kurt teased.

"Yep, that's the big, fat, evil plan."

"I hope you've told Annie your plans to use her nieces as your own minions," Kurt laughed. "I doubt this will be the last time, either."

"She knows," Logan said with a nod. "My original plan was to use Scott to play with her, but she thought the girls would be a better fit."

"She's a smart woman. He's very lucky," Kurt smirked.

Once Jubilee and Kitty had sugared Katie up, they had to quickly wipe her down and change her clothes again now that she had chocolate syrup all over her original outfit — and that involved even more giggling as Katie insisted that they were tickling her, which only meant they started to tickle her on purpose.

Not five minutes after Katie was cleaned up, Scott's nieces arrived, and all three girls almost immediately disappeared to play tag — the only evidence that they were still playing the occasional loud scream of giggles through any open window as they tore through the grounds.

It was actually starting to get darker outside when Leslie Ann came inside to tug on Scott's arm to report that, "Katie needs a nap."

"I've got it," Logan said. He and Scott followed Leslie Ann outside to find a very tired, very grumpy Katie just whining and rubbing her eyes. "Ready to come inside, kiddo?"

" _NO_ ," Katie said, stomping one foot and looking annoyed.

"Okay, what do you want to do while you're out here then?" Logan asked.

"I just wanna be outside," she whined as she rubbed her eyes again.

Logan and Scott shared a look and Scott slowly made his way to pick up Mary Beth, who was looking a bit sleepy herself — though she didn't whine at Scott and just melted into his shoulder when he picked her up to carry her inside.

Logan headed to Katie and just picked her up. "Bugs are coming out," he explained.

"I ran through the smoke at the campfire. The bugs can't get me," she told him.

"You'd need another campfire for that, and all the wood is wet. It won't burn right." He was already headed toward the house, ignoring her squirming as he carried her up.

"I don't wanna go inside. I'm not tired! I'm not hungry!" she was trying to tell him, coming up with more reasons why she didn't want to go in every time she squirmed.

"There's a swing in the garden. It doesn't go high, though. Why don't you swing with me for a few minutes so we can stay outside a little longer." Logan told her. "I'm not ready to go in either."

She nodded and rubbed her eyes. "Yes, please," she said quietly.

He stepped off the path and headed for Ororo's garden, where there was indeed a suspended chair on chains that would swing just a little. He sat down with Katie half leaning on his shoulder and just started slowly swinging with her as the crickets chirped around them.

It didn't take long like that before Katie's shoulders started to relax, and her head drooped several times, though she was fighting it with everything she had as she kept trying not to close her eyes until — finally — she just dropped off, completely asleep.

Logan could hear it — the moment her breathing evened out and slowed — and he waited just a bit longer for her to really fall into it deeply before he very carefully stood up and started toward the mansion with Katie curled up in his arms.

The people he crossed paths with on the way immediately dropped their conversations at their appearance and cleared the way for him to get her up to her bed, not wanting to risk waking her after all the work they'd put into tuckering her out.

When they finally got to the bedroom by Logan's, he very carefully laid her down and got her comfortable before the sound of Kurt teleporting could be heard out in the hallway. A few short moments later, Billy and Strange appeared at the door, and Logan stepped back just a few paces to give Billy room to work, though it was clear that he wasn't about to leave them alone with her.

It was the same as before — as Billy sat down in the chair next to Katie's bed and took her little hand in his. He closed his eyes again, and both his hands started to glow. Just like before, the spell traveled around Katie, and she whimpered a little in her sleep but didn't fully wake up as she was surrounded by the increasingly bright glow.

This time, the spell lasted much longer as Billy kept his eyes tightly screwed shut and just kept chanting Kate's name over and over again. The other occupants in the room had to close their eyes as well when the energy got too bright until — very suddenly — it was dark.

Billy had blown the power again, though this time he hadn't collapsed — that much was evidenced by the very tired, "Did it work?" that sounded in the darkened room.

Logan let out a tired sigh as he peered at the girl in the bed. "Sure looks like it," he said quietly. "Though I doubt the tutu's gonna look right on her now."

Billy let out a sigh of relief as Strange got the lights back on and they were all able to see Kate, still tucked into the blankets, but definitely fully grown, though she still had her bamf doll tucked under one arm while she slept.

"They grow up so fast," Strange tried to tease as the sound of Kurt's appearance echoed in the hall just a few seconds before he very carefully opened the door to the room.

"It worked. It worked. She's back," Billy said quickly when he saw Kurt peek his head in. "Look, see?" he gestured to Kate, who was starting to stir awake at all the noise.

The second she was even halfway awake, she woke up fully, eyes wide and clearly ready for a fight as she clutched her blankets to her chest — her shoulders bare as her clothes clearly no longer fit — and looked around the room. "What. The heck. Are you all _doing in here_?" she demanded, looking around at the gathered men — and then clearly looking for something more substantial than the bamf doll to throw at them.

"Billy thought it would be appropriate to introduce you to his new teacher while you were indecent," Logan deadpanned. "Said you wouldn't mind."

" _Out!_ Everybody _out_!" she half-shouted — still holding up her blankets with one hand as she pointed with the other at the door.

Logan chuckled at her and held the door for the two magic makers. "Some things never change."

Kate glared toward the door until it was closed before she turned to Kurt, and her gaze softened from the glare she'd been working up. "Kurt, sweetheart," she said, very quietly. "Why the _futz_ am I wearing a tutu?"

He didn't answer her right away but to rush up and just kiss the questions out of her for the time being, whispering out how much he missed her in every language he knew before he teleported her out of that room and back to theirs.


	11. Not So Little Anymore

**Notes::** _ **Danke**_ **for the holiday wishes, and we're glad you're continuing to enjoy this! Kurt is for sure glad to have Kate back to her normal, snuggly self, and you just know she's going to have** _ **so many questions**_ **.**

 **So we shouldn't keep her waiting for answers, right? Here's the next chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 11: "Not So Little Anymore"**

* * *

When Kurt and the newly adult Kate finally emerged a while later, Logan was trying to catch Jubilee, insisting that she hand over her phone.

"So ... what happened to Madripoor?" Kate asked Logan in an attempt to distract Logan and help Jubilee get away from him, shooting her friend a smirk. She wasn't sure what Jubilee was up to, but she was always up for messing with Logan.

"Nothing too special," Logan replied, though he didn't take his eyes or his focus off of Jubilee. "We fought ninjas. We won. Welcome stateside."

"Must've gotten hit," she muttered, rubbing the back of her head.

"Yep," Logan agreed with a nod, though his description of events was clearly lacking. Even for him. "Picked you up out of the street and tucked you in."

She made a face. "Please tell me no one saw that. Last thing I need is a picture of you carrying me around."

"Oh. I have _lots_ of pictures of him carrying you," Jubilee said with a delighted laugh. "And even a few of Kurt carrying you too. Those … those are golden." Logan stopped dead in his tracks and gave her a warning look.

"Jubilation—" Logan just shook his head slowly as he looked deadly serious with her. "Don't."

Kate just looked over at Kurt and lightly hit him in the arm. "Of course you show up after the trouble," she teased him. "Just typical." She just kept grinning at him for a second before she turned to Logan. "How long was I out? Couple days? Long enough for Billy to get back from space, anyway." She shook her head. "What'd they _hit_ me with?"

Jubilee looked between the men before putting it together. "You didn't tell her yet," Jubilee said with a look of disbelief. "You _need_ to tell her what happened!"

Kate took in Jubilee' expression and put her hands on her hips. Clearly, whatever they weren't telling her was something _big_ , and she had a right to know. "Yeah, boys. Tell her what happened," she said with a little glare. "What the heck was up with the tutu anyway?"

"Kitty gave it to you yesterday," Logan said straight-faced.

"Why?" Kate asked carefully. "Because I gotta tell you — I'm not a fan of tutu-only outfits."

Jubilee rushed past Logan, who had at least opened the door to the subject. "She gave it to you and you loved it," Jubilee said. "Because you were four. _And a half_." With that, she showed her the picture of her, Kitty, and Jubilee that Jubilee had taken the day before, right after her hair was braided.

Kate stared at the picture open-mouthed. "No." She shook her head. "No ... you've _got_ to be kidding me."

"Accidental magical age reversal," Jubilee told her. "You were a kid again for … about a week."

"A _week_?" Kate stared at the picture and then at Jubilee before she let out a little groan. "Oh _man_. That's just…. _Oh man."_

"Don't worry," Jubilee said with a nod and a very broad grin. "They took really good care of you."

Kate just started to shake her head. "Oh ... you don't — that's not… I was a _brat_ when I was a kid," she tried to explain.

"We know," Jubilee teased. "But it turns out they know how to handle a brat." She grinned wider. "I have video!" With that, Jubilee went to the beginning of her 'documentation' and just handed the phone to her.

"Of _what_?" Kate asked very quietly as she took the phone and started to scroll through, simply staring at each new image as she saw it.

"Everything, more or less." Jubilee said proudly, and with a sigh, Logan just left the room.

Kate's eyes just kept getting wider and wider as she caught up on the week's worth of her tiny self's adventures. There were pictures on here of her with every single one of the X-Men, plus Clint and Spidey and a few others — not to mention the video of her 'dance performance' with Kitty or the video of her and Annie's nieces singing Disney songs at the top of their lungs. By the time she got through them all, she just had to sit down, her eyes as wide as it was possible for them to get.

"Well… at least it looks like I had… fun," Kate managed with a little smile, shaking her head at the whole situation.

"You should probably go see Billy before he leaves," Kurt suggested. "He was terrified that something would go wrong."

She nodded and quietly handed Jubilee back her phone. "Okay. I'll just …. okay." She took a second to run a hand through her hair — which had stayed in braids through the transformation, though it was falling out all over the place by then. Still, it was another good ten minutes before she even felt up to moving, still processing what she'd just seen and not quite believing it yet.

When they found Billy, he was sitting in the kitchen, staring down at the table as Teddy had arrived to try and help him get back up to snuff. Billy was obviously pretty well exhausted, but Teddy was making pancakes — and Kate had to grin at that. The team always defaulted to pancakes in times of trouble.

"Heya, Billy," she said as she sat down in the seat across from him. "How come you look like the whole world has crashed down? Do you want the old me back that badly?" she teased. "I thought I was a brat."

Billy glanced up at her. "Are you doing okay?" he asked quickly. "You feel like ... you?"

"I'm _fine_ ," she assured him, looking him over. "You look like death, though."

"Yeah, it's a really, really hard spell," Billy admitted as Teddy set down his third cup of coffee in front of him and gave him a pointed look until he took a sip. "I didn't mean to do it the first time, so the second was harder."

"Yeah, don't do that again," Kate told him, shaking her head. "I was having a good vacation, Billy. There were ninjas. Kurt was coming. You owe me ninjas, Wiccan."

He grinned up at her ruefully. "I'll do what I can," he said, and she just laughed at him.

"Go _home_ , Billy. Seriously. You look like you're going to fall over."

"I got him," Teddy assured her as he flipped the pancakes one-handed. "We're staying here overnight just in case. Because — you know. Billy's a worrier."

"Yeah, he really is," Kate agreed with a sigh before she just crossed the kitchen and wrapped her friend in a hug. "Still love ya, Billy. Stop looking like a trainwreck and go pay attention to your fiance. He's trying."

Teddy snorted out a little laugh. "Don't need your help, Kate."

"Don't push it away if it's free," she countered, smirking, before she went over to give Teddy a warm hug as well. "Take care of him. He should _not_ look that pale."

"I'm on it," Teddy promised, and with that, Kate slipped back out of the kitchen, leaving her two friends to their late-night pancakes.

* * *

Despite all the excitement and the endless questions Kate still had about everything that she'd missed while she had been four, it was still late enough that they had to admit they needed to go to bed before the sun came up.

Kate and Kurt went back to his room, and for a moment, he was content just to watch her as she brushed her teeth, brushed out the braids in her hair, and slipped into pajamas that didn't have feet to them before she slipped into bed beside him and laid her head on his chest, one arm around his waist as she pulled the covers up over both of them.

He squeezed her closer and let out a contented sigh after he kissed her forehead. "Finally, I can sleep," he said with a little smirk.

"Really?" she teased. "You think I'm letting you _sleep?_ "

"Well, I can at least relax," he laughed lightly.

She tipped her head up to look at him and just shook her head. "Was I really that much of a pain?"

"No, your guardbody kept you in line quite well," he laughed. "You were delightful. I was just worried."

"Guardbody?" Kate repeated, then let out a little laugh. "I'm starting to think I'm glad I don't remember it," she said before she shifted a bit so she could reach him to kiss his cheek. "You worry too much anyway," she teased him as she just kept kissing him. "Going to get gray hairs — and then I'll _really_ have to tease you."

"I'll dye them," he teased. "You'll never know."

"Where will you hide the dye boxes?" she countered as she started to kiss his jaw. "You'll have to dye it all the time to hide the roots from a Hawkeye."

"I'll figure it out when it becomes an issue," he replied as he turned to kiss her properly.

She giggled a bit when the kiss broke. "You should know better than to worry anyway," she told him with mock severity. "I'll always come back to you, Elf."

"I hope so," he replied before he drew in a long, slow breath. "It's been a long week."

She paused and looked him over properly, smirking to herself as she nodded. "You're all worn out," she told him. "Clearly, you need a vacation."

"Oh, yes. I'll take that. Though I've no idea where we could go," he admitted. "Germany was a bust. I'm a bit leery of tropical islands for the time being as well."

"You and I — busting through vacation spots together," she agreed, smiling as she thought it over. "We could always go skiing in the Rockies. Not Colorado — but…" She thought it over. "Or we could go to California for the beaches?"

"We have a wedding to go to soon," he said. "Perhaps we can just spend a little extra time there. I hear Alaska is nice for a couple of weeks every summer."

She grinned at him and kissed his cheek. "Ooh, yes. We can go up early and then come back with everyone else," she said. "Because you, my beautiful elf, need a vacation sooner than later. Poor tired thing," she teased.

He just grinned and nodded his head. "You're wearing me out."

She laughed and pulled him closer for a deeper kiss. "Well, that's a shame," she teased, "because I'm still getting started with you."

* * *

Breakfast that morning came late for everyone that had been up for the spell and its aftermath — so there seemed to be a second round of coffee for those that stumbled in just before lunchtime. Billy and Teddy were still there, looking relieved to see that Kate was still grownup and not four, as were a few others, like Scott and Annie.

Kate and Kurt had come down to breakfast _only_ after spending a great deal of time waking up. It was evident to Kate that everyone was looking her way, and she blushed a bit just before Annie came her way at a full run to simply wrap her up.

"It's so good to see you back," Annie told her warmly. "Everyone here missed you."

Kate blushed again and just lightly hugged Annie back. She hadn't quite gotten used to Annie being around the house, since it had happened when she was little, and the overly warm hug had, she admitted, thrown her off. "Didn't mean to scare everyone," she mumbled.

"It wasn't your fault, Kate," Scott said with a laugh. "That kind of thing — you can't predict it or avoid it."

"I know," Kate said, shaking her head with a grin. She looked over at Billy and laughed when he shot her an apologetic grin. "It's nobody's fault. It's part of the gig — just — there's _looks_ afterward," she teased, raising an eyebrow at Scott as she turned her attention back to him. "Like I just came back from the dead. Haven't done _that_ X-Men thing yet, thank goodness."

"Yeah, try _not_ to do that one, alright?" Scott said, shaking his head. "That — is not a nice trick to pull on anyone."

"Oh, I won't," she promised with a wide smile. "Kurt could hardly survive a week of tiny me. I don't think he could handle anything worse than that," she added as she slipped over to Kurt and snaked an arm around his waist.

"Maybe not any more of _you_ ," Annie said. There was a distinct spark of trouble in her gaze as she looked the pair of them over — one that Kate recognized from when Jubilee showed off all her 'documentation'. "But he was very good with little Katie. A natural, really."

Kate looked up at Kurt, who had a look on his face that she couldn't quite place. "Yeah, Jubilee showed me a whole bunch of pictures last night. Seemed like everyone was having a blast."

"Some of us were better with the girls than others," Annie insisted with a wide smile, shooting both Scott and Kurt a look before she turned back to Kate. "I'm sure Jubilee will make sure you get the pictures on _your_ phone so you can look at them properly instead of all at once."

"Yeah, she might have mentioned that Pete's got a few I haven't seen yet, too," Kate said, still faintly blushing. "Guess the whole thing was pretty well-documented."

"Those little demon things took pictures too," Annie said, as she swatted a curious bamf away from the omelet she was making.

"Of course they did." Kate laughed quietly. "I'm the one that got them started on that too," she added, but in a quiet enough tone that only Kurt could hear the slight betrayal in her voice.

"Well I don't think anyone's seen those."

"Not publicly, anyway," Kate agreed. "I'm sure once I rescue my phone from them, Cassie and America will have full captions for every single picture." She poured herself and Kurt a cup of coffee, and the two of them slipped into chairs across from Billy and Teddy, sitting close together with Kurt's tail wrapped around her waist and her head on his shoulder whenever she wasn't taking a sip from the cup.

Most of the bamfs seemed content just hanging around Kate and Kurt, half of them watching Kate very closely as if they were waiting to see if she'd change again. But a couple of them got bored of Kate not doing anything magical and started to pick on Billy, who was still fairly worn out and clearly in need of coffee. They seemed to be playing 'keep away' with the coffee cup as they would wrap their little tails around the handle and pull it away from him every time he reached for it, and he was getting more annoyed with every near miss.

"Seriously, if you two don't cut it out, I'll … I'll magic off your tails so you can't do it anymore!" Billy threatened irritably.

The little bamfs froze in their places, and their little tails curled around their waists as they backed away a step then teleported off to hide behind Kurt, whose tail had tensed at the threat as well.

Kate looked around at the hiding bamfs and then down at the tail that was tighter around her waist than she was all that comfortable with. "Sweetheart, your tail," she tried to tell him, and when he loosened the grip with a little 'oh', she shook her head at him. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, fine," he said, trying to wave it off, but when he saw the look she continued to give him he decided to — kind of — explain. "It turns out that my best friend knows the best ways to make a demon howl for mercy. We discovered."

"Which demon?" she asked with a frown.

"Azazel," he said with a frown. "We were trying to figure out how you'd gotten small, and Logan and I went to find my foster mother. She had freed him from his island." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "And he got on Logan's bad side."

She winced the slightest bit. "Ouch. On so many counts," she muttered.

"I..." he shook his head and barely seemed to speak further. "He cut his tail off."

Kate's eyes widened, and she looked quickly down at Kurt's tail, then at the bamfs, and then at Kurt before she simply reached over, pulled Kurt closer, and kissed him hard. "You saw it, didn't you?" she asked before she just kissed him again.

"He looked like he was going to kill him, and he didn't warn him at all," Kurt admitted between kisses.

She finally pulled back enough to look him in the eyes. "But he didn't kill him, right? We don't have to deal with _that_ at least?"

"No, no we don't," Kurt said with a nod. "But he also warned him that if he had to go to hell to beat him down, he would."

"Yeah, don't let him do that. I like having you two around to cause trouble with me," Kate said, shaking her head. She kissed Kurt's cheek and then looked a bit worried. "You sent him back to that stupid island, right? I don't have to worry about any more chats with your dad?"

"Yes, we sent him to the island — or ... SHIELD took him," Kurt said. "Though I doubt you'll see him if we keep Logan close."

"Not if he's… cutting off…" Kate looked down at Kurt's tail again and just made a face.

"I heard him promise that he'd wish he was dead for all new reasons," Kurt said with a laugh. "So I think Logan has plans for next time — if there is a next time."

"Please don't let there be a next time," Kate said, shaking her head. "Once was more than enough for the rest of my life. No offense."

"None taken," Kurt assured her.

A short while later, after everyone had more or less gone through their weight in pancakes and coffee, Logan finally came through after his run. He stuck around long enough to grab a bottle of water and acknowledge that there were other people in the room before he started to head off again.

"You should join us," Scott called out. "We were talking about how the week went."

But Logan just waved him off. "Gonna go run that program you hijacked from me," he called back.

Kate picked her head up off Kurt's shoulder and grinned. "You headed to the Danger Room? Can I come?"

"I'm — I'm planning on running with no safety protocols," Logan said with a frown. "Not really your kind of program either."

"Well, I need to go down there anyway and just — check and make sure this 'new' body still remembers how to fight," Kate said as she stood up from her chair.

Logan looked at the empty water bottle in his hand for a moment before he whipped it at her. Of course, she dodged it and shot a glare his way.

"Looks like it works fine to me."

"That's not the same and you know it," she shot back. "Come on. I want to shoot things or fight things or something. Maybe we can spar after you're done with your _super danger_ or whatever."

She was already halfway to the elevators by the time he picked the pace up again. "I'm not sparring with you," he told her in a tone that said he meant business.

"Why not?" she asked as the elevator doors closed. "I was hoping you could help me run through some of the stuff we've been training on before this mess. Some of the hand to hand's still a bit — new."

He scrubbed his face with his hands. "I just — I can't do that yet. I'll run your sims if you want, but I'm not gonna do hand to hand with you for a little while."

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not four anymore, Logan. You can relax. I can take it."

He gave her a dry look. "I know. But you are still the same kid, and my old ass needs a minute to adjust. Alright?"

She sighed. "Fine," she allowed before she just reached over and lightly punched him in the arm. "But when you're ready, I'm totally going to kick your butt."

"You don't have a prayer, kid." He smirked her way for a moment. "You need at least another century of fighting before you can consider it."

"At the rate I've been growing lately, that should only take, what, five weeks?" she teased.

"Sounds right. I'll have Slim push your wheelchair."

"We can yell at the kids to get off the lawn together."

"And the bamfs can record you chasing the kids off the lawn while you wave your bow at 'em."

"All while you shout instructions on my poor old person form, I'm sure," she agreed.

"Well if you'd listen the first time, I wouldn't have to shout. Turn your hearing aid up, Hawk."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Wrong Hawkeye."

"For now."

She just laughed and nudged his shoulder with hers. "Have fun being stabby. I'm sure it burned being the hug magnet for so long."

"Honestly, I was hoping this talk wouldn't happen," he admitted. "Thought I might just catch a break."

She just laughed outright. "You were hoping that _I_ would be quiet about something?"

"I was hoping to get Jubilee to delete the damn pictures so you didn't have to look at all that traumatic evidence. Seems like an awful lot to take in."

"It was," she admitted. "Actually haven't slept much just… processing it." She gave him a little smirk. "That, and your fuzzy buddy was attention deprived. Poor thing."

"Yeah, well. You spent most of your down time sleeping on me, so."

"Well, clearly younger me knows a hug magnet when she sees one," she teased. "Besides, better you than him." She shrugged her shoulders up to her ears. "Kinda would be weird. You know. Little me."

"I suppose," Logan replied quietly. "He was number two on your list of snugglers, though."

"Well. Good taste." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Go. Be stabby. But I expect you to come play later, because there were ninjas."

"You can run the sim if you want, I don't think I'll take too long. I just have something I gotta work out. With everything that went down, it's just long overdue. But when I'm done, you can run the sim Scott set up for you to _watch_."

She grinned at that. "Now I'm kinda curious."

"Little Katie had some concerns, apparently," Logan said. "After the kidnapping attempt and whatnot."

"Kurt told me a little bit about that," she said. "But it sounds like I'll have to ask Clint about it."

"Yeah, _he_ was your hug magnet that day... but it was pretty simple, really. The creeps following him tried to snatch you. They died suddenly because of it. Weird how that works out."

Kate's eyes flashed for a moment, and she nodded. "Maybe after I check and make sure I remember how to shoot, I'll use them for target practice."

"You should watch Katie's monsters sim. I was a little entertained by one round in there anyhow."

She grinned. "Katie's monsters, huh?"

"Started with robots. Then I think your Russian mobsters — hilarious. Aliens. Just ... random crap she came up with."

"And you fought them all off, huh?" she said, still grinning.

"No claws. Couldn't scare the little girl. But it would be a good hand-to-hand exercise for you."

"That's not a half bad idea," she mused. "Plus, it's always fun to punch some tracksuits."

"Yeah, they're not rated for adamantium fists." He had a crooked smile on as he leaned against the side of the elevator.

"The ones in the sim or the ones in real life?"

"Well, both, really," he replied before he turned her way. "But your kill command on them … Kate." His tone was one of total disbelief.

She burst into laughter. "It's not even that far from reality, bro. Seriously."

"I think it is when it figures in hard hits and kill hits when _I'm_ in there. He gave me about a dozen of 'em. I could hear Scott laughing from the booth."

She just kept chuckling and shaking her head. "Oh man. And I missed it."

"Should be recorded," he admitted. "Scott always did that before. So you could see where your mistakes were made."

"Oh, please, let it be recorded," she said, grinning, her hands clasped underneath her chin. "I want to _save_ it."

"If it is, I was laughing."

"I bet you were." She chuckled again. "Those guys ... best way to blow off steam, really."

"A couple more of those guys doin' the 'bro' thing, and I would have lost that round laughing."

"Well, now I know your weakness," she teased. "Next time we spar, I'll just crack you up." She pretended to put up her defenses. "Bro," she said in a deep voice. "Seriously, bro."

He chuckled at her. "You're sick, Kate."

"That's why you love me!" she told him brightly.

"Okay, I'm gonna run this thing no safety. Or as close to no safety as Scott has it rigged now. Spoilsport." Logan grumbled. "The fight I want won't take too long. Probably not more than, oh ... fifteen, twenty minutes. Never takes too long."

She waved at him. "Sounds like a plan. I'm headed up to the booth to laugh hysterically at you and the tracksuits."

The two parted company, and Logan slipped into the Danger Room to start on his sim — already barking out his authorization codes and what sim he wanted before the door closed behind him, though Kate did raise an eyebrow a bit when she realized that he hadn't even changed into his uniform.

She made her way up to the booth and started to look through the logs indicating who had run what — how much time it had taken — scoring — the works. When she peeked down into the room where Logan was working, there wasn't much to see — deep green trees, birds singing, and all seemed quiet, so she went back to her search until she found the file she was looking for.

A few clicks later and she had it up on the screen — seven different camera angles captured the action from ground level while another three handled higher up angles. The Sentinel section was quick — and had some tips she could use, considering he really had run it with no claws.

But the section with the tracksuits was much funnier than he'd described it. She watched it three times with tears rolling down her face in laughter before she heard the bellowing roar from the room below and startled.

In a small clearing in the computerized forest, Logan was squaring off against a guy that was easily a foot taller and nearly twice as broad as he was. The guy was huge. Blonde — and on every fingertip was a hooked, three-inch-long claw that glimmered where it was covered in blood. Kate's eyes widened as she recognized Sabretooth; he was definitely bigger in 'person,' even if it was just a sim.

Logan's claws were bloodied as well, and it was only then that she realized that although both of them had blood on their claws — neither of them was currently bleeding.

"What, do you just find some poor forest animal before every fight for, like, ambience?" she muttered, shaking her head as she found a better camera angle to watch the fight.

Logan waited for the blonde to charge and rushed right for him, though Kate had to turn away when the blonde's jaw dropped and he _bit_ Logan's shoulder, tearing off a hunk of skin when he ripped his head back.

Logan retaliated quickly, gutting the tall brute with a deep treble slash across the abdomen that made an awful mess. The two men clashed and roared, snarled and slashed, until both of them were staggering. Kate's hand was hovering over the kill switch — still unsure as to which way the fight was headed until the big guy made a quick move that Logan countered so fast she knew she was going to have to replay it later to see.

The blonde's eyes rolled up into his head, and he fell to his knees, one hand across his bloodied, still gaping stomach wound. Just like that, the simulation shimmered — to reveal that Logan too had fallen to the ground with massive injuries.

Kate swore under her breath as she slipped out of the control booth to go to Logan, shaking her head at him. "You have the weirdest relaxation techniques of all time — you know that?" she told him as soon as she was out of the booth. "Seriously. You need a hand getting ... I don't know… cleaned up? Or to food?"

"Just gimmie a minute," Logan told her from the floor. "Not a relaxation technique."

"If you say so," Kate said as she sat down beside him, grinning. "All I know is you come in here growly and you come out less so."

"Probably from blood loss. At least it was at least a draw this time." He picked his head up a little bit to focus on her better. "Or did I win?"

"I think it was a draw," she admitted. "You were both pretty well ... not put together anymore."

"Close enough to a win then," Logan replied as he set his head back down. "I heal faster."

She nodded and just watched him for a moment. "Either he's bigger in person or you're shorter than I realized," she said, deciding to go for a bit of teasing.

"Probably both," Logan replied before he finally sat up and started to stretch a little bit. "Size don't always mean that much, though."

"Don't have to tell me that. I make a living off of keeping up with bigger, stronger people," Kate agreed with a smirk. "Well ... not a living. You know what I mean."

"Right," he said before he got up the rest of the way. "So. Your turn. You wanna run that other sim? Not this one."

She shook her head with a little huff of a laugh. "Yeah, no, don't want to run the Sabretooth sim. I'll take the Katie's monsters for 500, Alex."

"Just be sure to answer in the form of a question, kiddo," Logan teased. "I'll watch from up there — unless you really want a hand?"

She grinned. "You're welcome to play if you want."

He thought about it for a moment but ultimately shook his head. "I'll stay back unless you call for me," he said as he headed toward a corner.

"And try not to die of laughter when we get to the tracksuits," she agreed.

"Yeah, that's the plan. How bad was it on video playback?"

"Tears, Logan. I had actual _tears_ streaming down my face," Kate said, giggling even at the memory. "I watched it _three times,_ and it never stopped being funny."

"Did you catch me swearing or was it overpowered by the 'bro'?"

"I thought I heard a swear or two, but I could see the rest of them just watching your _face_." She giggled again, shaking her head. "Pure comedy gold. For _real_."

"Then you'll have to let Clint try it too. I have a feeling he'd just fall apart and lose."

She burst into laughter at that. "Oh, he'd only make it through maybe two 'bro's before he was _done_." Still laughing, she said. "We _so_ have to make him run it. And record it." She recovered a bit of her stance as she managed to get her laughter under control before, finally, she nodded to Logan. "Alright. Robots and hand-to-hand. Keep an eye out and let me know how bad a week of tiny tot-ness has thrown off my game, would you? I wouldn't say no to a few pointers."

"You got it," Logan agreed from the far corner before he called out the codes and proper safety protocols for the program to start.


	12. How to Incapacitate a Cyclops

**Notes: And with this chapter, we come to the conclusion of this fun little volume! Check out Canucklehead Cowgirl's profile for Volume 5, "Unwilling Weapon," which will go up very shortly. While robbie was OVER THE MOON excited for Volume 4? CC is just so. So. So excited for Volume 5. We are maybe biased about certain storylines and character focuses. *shrug***

 **Onwards we go! :D**

* * *

 **Chapter 12: "How to Incapacitate a Cyclops in One Easy Step"**

* * *

Jubilee dropped into the seat next to Kate the next morning with a wide grin. "Hello, bigger Katie. Have you seen all of the pictures yet, because I finally saw what Peter took? And — you not even being an issue in some of those? I am so having a few printed."

Kate chuckled over her morning coffee. She was getting used to being razzed about her time as Tiny Katie, and she figured she could suffer through a few more indignities. Hazards of being a superhero and an X-Man, apparently. "Which ones?" she asked. "Because the ones where you're chasing me trying to get me to take a bath are _so_ not getting put anywhere."

"No, no. Nothing like that," Jubilee assured her, though she was wearing a huge, crooked grin. "Pete got a really really great one of you and Logan that ... it needs to be preserved, but … Kurt. Kate. _Kurt._ "

Kate shifted slightly. "What about Kurt?" she asked, even though she had a feeling she knew where this was headed.

The crooked grin only got _worse_. "He has... the most … expressive eyes, don't you think?"

"I think they're pretty cute," Kate agreed cautiously. "Why? You trying to muscle in?" she teased.

"No, I like the one I've got just fine thanks. And besides, he's like a big brother. No. Eew," Jubilee said, pulling a face before she straightened her shoulders importantly and turned her focus fully back to Kate. "He just ... he says so much with his _eyes_. He's got this … look." She thought about it for a moment, and her expression looked like she was relishing something hard to wrap her mind around. "It was almost bittersweet."

Kate tugged at the end of her hair as she thought over some of the pictures Peter had shown her. "He just… he took care of me," she tried to deflect. She had a feeling she knew what Jubilee was trying to argue, and she was _so_ not ready for that conversation. "Because it's me, and because he's just like that. Don't read so much into things, Jubilee."

"No, that's not it," Jubilee replied, totally serious. "You need to see it, Kate. I won't even try and tell you what I think — just that it is SUCH a beautiful picture." She paused and chuckled to herself. "Both of them are."

Kate sighed. She could try to fight Jubilee, argue the point, but that could lead to all sorts of discussions. Discussions about futures that she wasn't entirely prepared to have. "Fine — but only because I think you're wrong on this," she insisted.

Jubilee took her hand and led her to Pete's office, where the computer was still up with the images that Jubilee wanted. "Oh, hello," Peter said. "You — you don't want to look at what I like, do you? Because that's gotta be a surprise for when I print it."

"Pete, you can have whatever favorites you want," Kate said with a little shrug, trying not to think about just _what_ he wanted to print out. "I'm just here because Jubilee thinks Kurt's eyes are dreamy."

"Okay. Whatever you say," Peter said with a shrug as he keyed a few last commands into the image editor. "Believe it or not, most of Jubilee' list doesn't have Kurt."

Kate turned to face Jubilee with raised eyebrows. "But you were all — the look on his face?"

"Yes. But he's not the only one I like in this photoset." Jubilee turned the laptop so Kate could see. "Look. Look at Noh trying to play with little you. It was epic."

There was no way Kate _couldn't_ giggle when she saw the perfect action shot Peter had captured of a very tiny Katie — wearing the biggest grin — sailing through the air as Noh threw her out of the pool with a look of concentration that she recognized as 'aiming.' "Who was he trying to throw me into?" Kate teased.

"Me," Jubilee said with a laugh. "He was trying to not get me too wet since I had staples in my head."

"So thoughtful, that boy," Kate said, smirking Jubilee' way.

"Yes, so very thoughtful," Jubilee agreed before she moved to the next picture — Remy teaching little Kate how to build a house of cards.

"How long did it last before he blew it up?" Kate asked, laughing.

"About two seconds after you got bored with it," Jubilee replied. "But Peter was laughing too hard at you laughing to take a very good picture of the explosion, so this will have to do."

Kate glanced at Pete, who just grinned, and she had to shake her head. "Glad to be the source of entertainment," she teased.

"Wait — here," Jubilee said, putting up a shot of Katie and Scott squaring off — both of them with their arms crossed, and Katie's bottom lip stuck out as she stood on the dining room table so she could better look him in the face.

Kate burst into a laugh that just didn't stop the longer she looked at the picture. "Oh, tell me I won," she managed between laughs.

"Of course you did," Jubilee said with a wave. "He breaks down for little girls."

The next shot was one of Katie with Storm. She was on the Goddess' lap as she read her a story and looked terribly sleepy. The one after that was Bobby after he'd made a little sledding hill for her. The one after that one of Logan that had to have been taken after she'd gotten scared of Strange by the way he was holding her with her head just under his chin.

Kate stopped the slideshow at that one and tipped her head at the picture. "What happened there?" she asked quietly.

"Magic that didn't totally work. You were inconsolable — until he went all … _dad_ on you."

Kate just stared at the picture for a second, a strange expression on her face before the smirk started at the corner of her mouth. "Giant hug magnet," she whispered half under her breath.

"One of oh, so many with the hug magnet," Jubilee said with a laugh. "Kurt has the very first one of the two of you all snuggled up. You might want to check his phone. Apparently you took over on him as soon as you turned into a kid."

"I must have been able to sense his hug magnet powers," Kate argued.

"Yeah, that's it," Jubilee said before she stuck her tongue out at her and moved to the next slide — of Kurt carrying her up the stairs while she was completely knocked out asleep. "Peter got this one from the ceiling."

Kate had to admit that it was, if nothing else, a beautiful shot. It got little Katie's tired, tucked in, peacefully sleeping face in the frame as well as the full Kurt expression as he was gently shifting her in his arms. And — well. That… was a look Kate just wasn't prepared for.

"I thought you might need to see that," Jubilee said quietly. "Not because I was wrong or anything. But because it's a _burden_ to be so _right_ all the time."

Kate tore her gaze from the picture on the screen to Jubilee, blinked twice, and shook her head. "You," she said softly, "are a troublemaker."

"I do not bring this to you as any kind of attempt to make trouble," Jubilee said, her hands up in front of her. "Just to point out to you — that you should KNOW. And also ... even if it's a ways off … "

Kate just sat in the chair with a faint sort of smile and shook her head. Jubilee didn't know. She didn't know if just wasn't going to happen with her and Kurt. It just wasn't. But Kate didn't have the words to explain that, she she simply sat there, shaking her head.

"I think what Jubilee is trying to say," Peter said as he leaned back in his chair. "Is ... Behold: The Future." Kate snorted at that.

"Well I wasn't going to say it, but that is totally what I was saying," Jubilee said with a smirk Peter's way. "You know. Unless you think there's something _wrong_ with him."

"With Kurt? Oh no," Kate said, smirking. "With you two? Very much so. So wrong in the head."

"I don't think so," Peter said. "I mean, everyone had fun with you, and everyone had their tender 'Katie' moments? But even with Logan being your go-to? No one really had the _look_ like Kurt. Except maybe Scott."

"That's because Scott's marrying into a family of adorable little girls," Kate pointed out.

"Yes, but — explain Kurt then," Jubilee said.

"I don't know," Kate said, frowning as she stumbled over her words. "Maybe — maybe it's just — you know—"

"A _longing_?" Peter offered.

"Well — might just be because he can't ever… he told his dad when I met him… I mean. In no uncertain terms," Kate tried to explain, though she knew she wasn't doing a good job. "No baby Kurts."

"But baby Kate might have him re-thinking that," Jubilee said.

Kate tipped her head back to stare at the ceiling. "Careful, Kate. This is what happens when you date older men," she informed the ceiling.

"Not all older men. Logan … well. Logan looks like Logan," Jubilee said. "He's always got that 'everybody's dad' look to him." She grinned, trying to ease Kate's suffering so she didn't focus too much on it. "He even Dadd-ed Scott when you stole his glasses."

"I stole… Oh, I'm sorry," Kate said, looking back from the ceiling to Jubilee. "I told you I was a brat!"

"Well, Logan got you to apologize on the spot. Was that normal for you?"

Kate looked downright shocked. "Definitely not," she admitted. "I… didn't get told 'no' at that age."

"Well you listened to him," Peter said nodding. "He didn't even really need to get on you most of the time. Pretty impressive for just a hug magnet."

Kate snorted. "Yeah, well, if he was _talking_ to me insted of around me, that's…" She shrugged. "Probably why I listened. But hey, if that's the case? Why are we not getting on his case to find a nice girl… settle down… raise twenty of them…?"

"Yeah, right. Good luck with that," Jubilee said. "You can try. But his excuse is always the same."

"Which one? The 'I am not a hug magnet' or the 'Shh don't tell anyone I secretly love you guys'?" Kate laughed.

"The 'they always end up dying on him' one," Jubilee said, one eyebrow crooked as she was entirely serious all of a sudden. "Which leads to 'I'm cursed'."

"Considering the amount of magic people we know? I think we'd know if he was cursed by now," Kate pointed out, though she'd dropped the teasing tone.

"True. I didn't say that I agreed with that one," Jubilee replied. "And the other one, unfortunately, is true."

Kate nodded quietly. "Well. He'll just have to hug _your_ kids then, won't he?" She smirked a bit. "Cute little half-Kree babies trying to take over Earth at age three."

"That sounds darling. They can play with your quarter demons."

"Better wait until we have stronger defenses, then," Kate countered. "Because the Earth is so not ready for _that_ hostile takeover."

"Good news! Noh is working on it already. Mostly upgraded — it'll be ready to go before school starts. Yay!"

"I said the Earth, not the mansion," Kate shot back. "If the mansion can survive _you_ guys babysitting me, I'm not too worried about this place."

"Yeah, but we have the best babysitter in the universe? So — you know. No reason to worry too much," Jubilee said with a confident nod. "But you guys are in line first. Sorry. We can wait about five minutes after you go first."

"Scott. I think you mean Scott is in line first," Kate insisted. She wasn't sure how much of this teasing was serious, after all, and she was absolutely not above throwing Scott under the bus in case Jubilee was actually asking for kids.

"Oh, well. Scott. Yes, Scott..." Jubilee held her breath. "Scott will have that covered I think by … Valentine's Day. That's where I put my money. I have faith in him to act as _our_ fearless leader here too."

"Does he know there's a deadline?" Kate teased. "You know he works best with calendars."

"I'm sure he knows we're betting on him," Jubilee said. "It's like — tradition."

Kate just shook her head at Jubilee. "Yeah, well, have fun with the betting pool on Scott. I'll put my money on — the Christmas after next or something. You're _way_ too excited about this," she said with a little laugh.

Jubilee just broke into a laugh. "I am. It's going to be _glorious_."

* * *

When Kate got back to Kurt's room, she was surprised to find that he wasn't there. Neither of them had gotten much sleep last night, and she couldn't imagine that he was any less tired than she was, especially when he'd been dealing with her bratty self all that time leading up to her waking up in a tutu. She was surprised she hadn't walked in to find him totally crashed, when she was considering doing that very thing herself. She liked finding him zonked out, actually, because when he came home exhausted from a mission, he always looked so darling with his limbs spread out every which way, his mouth partly open, and the very tip of his tail swaying the slightest bit to the rhythm of his breathing.

A few of the bamfs popped in with curious expressions on their faces, and one of them settled onto her shoulder with a little 'bamf?' as she just grinned back and reached up to tickle the little guy.

"I don't suppose you know where the big, handsome Dlf is, do you?" she asked him, and the little guy giggled and nodded. She didn't even have to ask to be teleported away — the next thing she knew, she was standing in the room where she'd woken up from being a kid for so long, and Kurt was at the dresser, very carefully folding a small basket full of clothes — all of them kid-sized.

"We're keeping all that stuff?" Kate asked, and Kurt jumped the slightest bit — she must have startled him out of his thoughts.

He smiled quietly as he turned toward her. "You never know. Occasionally, we do run into smaller children. And Scott's nieces are just down the way."

Kate watched him for a moment, trying to get a read on just what _that_ particular expression meant, before she gave up, reached across him, and plucked a sparkly purple shirt out of the basket and had to laugh. "Oh. I was totally spoiled rotten."

"You say that like it's some kind of shock," Kurt laughed.

"What — a bunch of superheroes unable to say no to my bratty self? Yes. Yes it is," she teased.

"Most of them anyhow, yes," Kurt said with a nod. "You were quite easy to talk into things, though. Even if Logan usually bribed you."

"Well thank goodness my older self isn't so easy," she said with a smirk. "Though I still take candy bribes, let's be honest."

"Well, lucky for you, I happen to have a bit of sugar," he replied as he pulled her over for a kiss.

She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Oh, how the tables have turned," she whispered. "Now _you're_ the one I can't say no to."

He just grinned and kissed her again as his tail twisted around her ankle.

* * *

Kate and Kurt were much better rested the next morning, though no less wrapped around each other, when Scott came down to the kitchen to find the two of them.

"Do you have any major plans today?" he asked Kate with a serious sort of look that surprised her into sitting up a little straighter.

She bit back the comment on the tip of her tongue about plans to keep Kurt occupied all day and just shook her head. "No, I think blowing the trip to Madripoor pretty much kayo'ed my schedule."

"Sorry to hear that," he said with a smirk. "But — that just means we can start fast-tracking your training. You're with me today."

"I am?" She blinked at him in surprise. "For what?"

"Teaching you how to be an X-Man," he replied as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "What else would I be teaching you?"

"Of course. Why did I even ask such a silly question?" Kate said with a little smirk at Kurt before she nodded Scott's way. "Okay. If I can survive aging 20 years in a day, I can survive whatever you throw at me. Hit me with your best shot."

He smirked and nodded. "Great. Meet me in the Danger Room in half an hour, I have a few basics that I'm sure Logan and Kurt skipped over."

She matched his smirk over the top of her coffee mug. "Yeah. Probably should know things like what the heck a 'basic maneuver three' is before I'm in the field, huh, Kurt?" she teased before she leaned over to explain to Scott. "First time I met those two, they just assumed I could, like, read their minds or absorb the playbook by osmosis or something."

"That's because the two of them are idiots in the field," Scott said dryly. "They've been working together long enough they just — bounce off each other."

"Well, I keep up with them okay," Kate said, smirking.

"We don't even use the maneuver numbers anymore. They were being idiots. I promise you don't need to know that stuff."

Kate just grinned a bit wider. "Well, they're my idiots," she told him.

"Timeshare idiots at best," Kurt cut in, giving her a quick kiss before he grinned Scott's way. "And you're behind on your payments, fearless leader."

Scott shook his head with a little laugh. "Alright. Fine. Just — Kate? Half an hour."

She saluted him with her coffee. "I'll be there. Don't be late."

* * *

As it turned out, Scott ran her through a program that she actually wasn't entirely prepared for. It started out like an obstacle course, but after she played her way through it, and the shooting simulation he had running for her — she suddenly found herself facing off against one X-Man after another, and after the first couple, they just seemed to pour in until she was fighting half the team.

She was just getting to the point of total frustration when the simulation just — stopped. "Good work, Hawkeye," Scott said over the comms. "Come on up for your scores."

She was surprised at the sudden stop and glanced up at the booth. "C'mon, I can — I got this. Just give me a sec to catch my breath," she half-panted.

Scott just smiled down at her from the booth. "I don't run things like Logan. I don't like to let you go until you break. Come on up. See how you did, and if you want to go back, you can go back. But in the meantime — watch what you did. Learn. That's how you get better."

She shouldered her bow with a frustrated sigh but climbed up nonetheless, grabbing up a water bottle to down half of it before she even got to the booth. "Is it normal to teach your team how to take each other down?" she teased, getting back some of her good humor now that she'd had a break and some water.

"Yes, for us it is." Scott told her.

"If you say so," she said as she sat down next to him to review the tapes.

"You did well, really. You just — you need to maybe pick up your pace a little bit and focus more on hand to hand. You're an amazing shot with a bow, but I worry about when you run out of arrows."

She nodded thoughtfully. "I've been training with Logan on hand-to-hand, but I could step it up more, I'm sure."

"Just keep pushing him for more. We could all use a tune up on hand-to-hand though. All of _us_ rely on our abilities too much. It's something I'm going to try to get _everyone_ to do more of."

"Not a bad idea," she said with a smile. "Though hey, that's what you've got me for if the powers run out. My arrows aren't affected by it."

"Powers run out more often than you think," Scott admitted. "It's just something we all slip out of practice from. I'll bet it's been years since Kurt did anything without his abilities. Same for Bobby. I'll bet Peter hasn't thought about it since he got his abilities." He paused. "I know Storm has, though. She — she kind of reminded me of everything Logan taught her when she spent the other day in here with me."

Kate broke into a wide grin. "I'm going to have to ask her to spar with me sometime, then," she said. "I could always use sparring partners."

"Wait until Logan says you're ready first," Scott advised. "She's been a really good student for him for years."

Kate nodded again and adjusted her gloves. "I'll just have to work harder, then," she said with a shrug.

Scott gave her a full smile. "That's the right attitude." He leaned back in his seat and gave her an approving nod. "So. Let's just keep working on this together. When you're tired, we'll do some simulator stuff that you really should try out."

Kate grinned and shrugged off her quiver and bow, leaving them in the seat beside Scott as she readjusted her hair under her headband. "Sounds good."

"I do want to ask you about _your_ simulation though," he said, and this time, there was just the slightest hesitation. "Is … is that a joke sim?"

She broke into a little laugh. "Okay. You," she said, poking him in the chest, "are going to have to come with me to Bed Stuy sometime and meet the tracksuits. Because I swear to you, it's not even that much of a joke."

"Alright," Scott said with a smirk. "You feel like taking a drive then? I … kinda wanted to get out of the house for a little bit anyway."

"Oh, you're so on," she said, grinning. "I've been meaning to pay those guys a visit anyway since Logan told me about their kidnapping attempt. Who _does_ that?"

"Clint felt awful," Scott told her seriously. "Especially after Stark traced it down to a tap on his data."

She sighed and leaned back against the wall, arms crossed. "Like he has any say in what the tracksuits do," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's not his fault. I'll buy him a new quiver or something and then hit him with it for being an idiot."

"If you buy him a quiver to hit him with every time he's an idiot, he's gotta have a whole apartment dedicated to quivers."

She snorted. "Yeah, I just — like to get him something that says 'I don't blame you' when it's _me_ he's being an idiot about."

"So it's a special account you have somewhere then," he teased. "Think you can hire someone to remind him to clean his room?"

"Oh, if only," she laughed. "I love him to pieces, but he's just… Clint."

"Yeah, I know the type," he said with a nod, though he let the subject fall. "Let's go see your tracksuit guys."

She grinned and pulled her quiver back over her shoulder. "I swear to you — if you fall apart laughing because you saw them in the sim first? It's not my fault."

"Point taken," he said with a laugh. "I'll be good."

* * *

"Okay, yep, they're definitely here," Kate said as she parked her little purple car around the corner from where she could see a line of black and white cars by the curb.

"How can you be sure?" Scott asked curiously.

She pointed at the cars. "They all drive the same thing. Well — that or big white vans that they try and kidnap Clint in. For real." She chuckled and shook her head as she pulled out her bow. "Pretty sure they're playing cards in the back room. Want to break it up?"

Scott grinned. "Sounds good to me."

With a wide grin, Kate fitted an arrow to her string and led the way through the ramshackle little building until they reached the very back, where Kate just shot Scott a huge smirk before she simply kicked the door in.

Kate had been right — there were an entire group of tracksuited bad guys sitting around tables and playing cards. They jumped to their feet when Kate kicked in the door, and half of them were reaching for baseball bats as soon as they saw her, while the other half reached for guns that looked like far too much hardware for just one girl.

"Hello, boys!" Kate announced as she immediately started firing.

Scott hung back a bit to see Kate in action on her own turf — grabbing a few tracksuits' guns out of their hands but mostly letting Kate work through the group. He hadn't even started using his optic blasts, content to just take mental notes on his newest teammate.

One of the tracksuits got close enough to Kate to try and take a swing at her with a large bat, and when she kicked him in the chest, a couple of his buddies looked down at him as he skidded. "Seriously, bro," one of them said to their fallen comrade. "Deal with crazy broad."

Scott actually had to stop and just ... glance back at the group of tracksuits in surprise.

Kate ran toward the two buddies of the fallen tracksuit and, with a jump, hooked her bow around the shoulders of one of them and brought him down, spinning as she landed on her feet to kick out the feet of a second. She looked up with a grin Scott's way, clearly having a good time as she used her fists and feet just as often as her bow — half the time going for hand-to-hand just so she could get up in their faces to shout things like, "Who goes after a _four-year-old_?"

But Scott, on the other hand, was starting to have a hard time — not because the tracksuits were particularly difficult to fight, but because he had promised not to fall apart laughing, and it was getting increasingly difficult as he quickly realized that, no, Kate had not been exaggerating about the tracksuits.

"What, you couldn't take me on full-grown, so you had to take on a Kindergartener?" Kate shouted in the face of a tracksuit that she was half kneeling on after knocking him down.

"Bro," shouted one of the tracksuits, addressing Scott instead of Kate, which only had Scott trying hard not to laugh again. "Bro, control crazy broad, bro."

"Kate ... I'm gonna have to break my promise," Scott managed to get out with the minimal amount of chuckles.

Kate grinned back at him as she shot another tracksuit and spun to face him. "I told you — not my fault they're like this," she called back to him.

He was grinning widely, and it was pretty clear he was about to break down laughing. "Where do you find these people? It's like a comedy routine."

"The other Hawkeye," she said as if that was all the explanation he could possibly need.

"I am so glad I downloaded that onto my phone."

She couldn't help it — she turned to him with a broad grin. "You did? Seriously, bro — that's real good."

At that, he just bent over laughing and waved her way. "You got this; I'm gonna have to step out."

She just laughed and set back to work, and when she finally came back out to the curb to find Scott just barely starting to get control of his laughter, she leaned over his shoulder and said, "Bro. Bro — why you laughing?"

"You are a terrible influence," he said, still holding his sides.

She was laughing hard herself, wiping at her eyes as they made their way back to her car. "I definitely am," she agreed. "But I'm not a liar either — _told you_ it wasn't a joke program."

"It's just... the _look_ on Logan's face when the heavy hits got out a 'bro' and they just … Oh. Yeah, I'm saving that for a rainy day."

Kate could barely contain her own laughter as she got behind the wheel. "And the fact that you can _see_ him swearing but you can't even hear it," she supplied, still giggling madly.

"Oh, he was laughing too," Scott promised. "And the part where he halfway stopped and was just … I'm sure he thought I was pulling his leg."

"Which you would never, ever do," she said with as much seriousness as she could muster before she couldn't keep a straight face anymore and just started to laugh again.

Scott was grinning. "He kinda asks for it."

"Kinda?" She _beamed_ over at him. "Scott, he walks around with a sign over his head. It says 'please mess with me', and I intend to listen to those instructions."

He just chuckled and nodded his head before he tried for a little more serious conversation. "You're coming with me for the next few runs. Just for comedic effect, if nothing else."

She grinned even wider at that. "This sounds like a perfect plan," she told him. "We'll have to come up with some sort of signal, though — in case the other one breaks down laughing mid-battle and needs a save," she teased.

"I'm pretty sure the uncontrollable laughter is the signal," he replied. "Unless you think you can squeeze out a 'Ca-caw'."

"Oh, I like you," she laughed. "Yes, you can stay."

"Glad I have your approval," Scott said, smirking, as they headed back home.

By the time the two of them got to the mansion, they had the laughter more or less under control, though every once in a while, they would fall back into fits when Kate would, with a totally straight face, say, "Control crazy broad, Scott," or "seriously, bro," _just_ to fall apart laughing at the way Scott would try desperately not to laugh and then fall apart anyway.

They were just in time to join the others for dinner, and since they felt like they'd both gotten a solid handle on it, it was _almost_ a normal dinner.

But mid-way through, Kate's phone notified her of a new message, and when she looked at it, she fell apart all over again as Scott sat there with the biggest smirk on his face, though he managed to keep it under control.

Kurt looked a bit confused for a second as he watched Kate just dying of laughter that she was valiantly trying to get under control — until she handed him her phone and he looked at the media download Scott had sent her with the title "Seriously, bro."

He just started to chuckle under his breath as Kate finally got her giggles back under control, though it was a long time before she could even _look_ Scott's way without falling apart again.

And Kurt just grinned the whole time. Clearly, Kate wasn't going to have the least bit of trouble with Scott back to leading the team — and he was glad to see it. After all, not every hero could handle working with someone who had been in charge of picking out her Disney movies just days ago.


End file.
